Catholic Voice 24th April 2020 Issue 289

CatholicVoice Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat

24 April - 7 May 2020

€£1.5

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Do Not Put The

of the Passion -

Lord Your God To

Canon Heppelle

The Test

- page 16

- page 21

0 Irel and UK M ainla n

d

Issue 289

The Instruments

Only

He is Risen As He Said Allelulia “We Need Our Church Back” - page 2

Killing Children At Home Is Permitted - page 14

Chinese Pandemic Exit Strategy - page 18

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2 FAITH MATTERS

Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

“We Need Our Church Back” A Priest’s Spiritual Combat for Coronavirus Pandemic Fr. Kyle Walterscheid Selfishly, I want our church doors reopened and our church activities back to normal. I want that not just for us, but for all churches throughout the whole world.

And I suppose you do too.

But things are different now.

We have some self-imposed stay-athome measures to our daily life and access to our churches is limited.

So, let us pull back a bit and reflect on how God still calls us to Himself and what he calls us to do.

First, I want to share with you a true story of hope where God delivered part of northern Texas from a similar dire situation just a few years back.

our prayers will require the personal sacrifice of both prayer and fasting, so I did that too, doing a 40-day fast.

From 2011-2014, a severe drought and famine hit the entire midsouthwest, but the Wichita Falls, Texas region was hit the worst.

Dallas/Fort Worth was put under extreme water rationings, but Wichita Falls had all but ran out of water and businesses were permanently closing left and right.

Even if a rainfall brought some relief, it would not be enough to convince people to keep their doors open. It was devastating for the entire region.

A few weeks after the fast, God gave me a little insight about a future rain that was to come. Like in the days of Elijah, it had been 3.5 years of a severe drought.

For some reason, God put it on my heart to monitor their situation for over two years as it caught the daily news cycle. So, I earnestly prayed with them throughout that time.

All our prayers seemed unanswered.

I knew in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus said that in the worst cases

During Spring Break of 2015, I was invited to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Windthorst, Texas just 30 miles south of Wichita Falls, where the high school students gathered for their weekly Mass, meal, and youth activities.

That spring brought about the largest rainfall ever recorded in the Wichita Falls area going back 150 years and all the lakes were filled and running over.

I share that story, first because it truly was a miracle from God. Secondly, because it happened in the last 10 years. Thirdly, because we are in a similar predicament – but this one involves the whole world.

Let us assume that God has permitted this virus.

There, during Mass, I shared with them the following: “What if I was to share with you that by this time next year this drought will not only end, but that every lake in the region would be completely filled and all our worries would be over?”

On the other hand, Satan wants to use this virus to turn the world away from God, but Satan must also find a way to blame the Church for it.

In God’s wisdom, all the churches appear to be closed, just as Satan had hoped and planned, but Satan does not have the last word, Jesus does.

Just the thought of it brought joy to them. Then I added, “It will happen, God has heard your prayers.”

While the church appears to be closed, many priests are still working and praying and fasting.

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

APPEAL 3

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4 FAITH MATTERS We work behind-the-scenes to give hope to the hopeless, praying and anointing the sick, and offering forgiveness to the repentant sinner in the name of Jesus.

At the same time, I ask that we all do something special. It will not be easy, but it is doable. It will require holiness, sacrifice and prayer.

We Need Our Church Back No, I am not talking about simply opening the doors and going about things as normal. We need our Church back in a way that we haven’t seen in 50 years.

We need families praying together.

We need Jesus Christ as the head of every household.

We need all of our families consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We need to pray with the saints.

We need the protection of St. Michael the Archangel, and we need to entrust ourselves to our guardian angels.

Catholic Voice We need a Church that is vibrant and leading the whole world to Jesus Christ and the glory of eternal life.

We need strong marriages – couples who pray together and sacrifice together for the greater glory of God and for the good of others.

We need to encourage our sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters to consider the religious life.

We need to be praying for our teenagers and young adults to come to believe that Jesus Christ is the one True Saviour of the world and help them discern their vocation in life. And when one of them says that they sense Jesus Christ calling them to consider the religious life, we should be elated and begin to pray and help them learn more about the religious life, encouraging them to seek what God wills for them.

For myself, there are untold families and peoples who prayed for me for seven years to make it through the seminary and I don’t know if I would have persevered without all the graces God gave me through them.

24th April 2020

No, we will not end this pandemic, but God may help us flatten the curve. And with certainty, we can get our lives back on the right track with Christ and his Church.

I ask everyone to do the following 4 things this week: (1) Read one of the Gospels from beginning to end (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John).

Really experience the Good News of Jesus Christ who conquered both sin and death.

(2) Pray for 30 minutes a day in addition to your scripture readings.

Bring everyone under your roof together to pray the rosary every day or the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

(3) This virus is the worst of the worst. Jesus said that this kind can only be taken out by prayer and fasting.

Include a daily fast this week. Enter into the passion of Jesus Christ and have passion for those suffering the most due to this pandemic. Suffer with those who suffer. Weep with those who weep.

CatholicVoice is being published in a different format than you are used to during the current pandemic.

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For more copies or enquiries please -Telephone 059 8627268 from ROI or 00353 598627268 from outside ROI email editor@catholicvoice.ie or advertising@catholicvoice.ie Visit www.lumenfidei.ie

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice Can you go with three small meals each day without snacking? Can you do more? Please drink plenty of liquids. If you have health issues, then can you offer something else up as a sacrifice? Remember, we are all in this together and Jesus is in the boat with us.

may forgo what the world promises to embrace the eternal promise of Jesus Christ. Pray for our seminarians and those in religious formation.

(4) Lastly, pray for the Church, pray for our bishops, priests, and religious.

Pray that our church be strong again and the greatest force of good in the world. Pray that our Church, as the bride of Christ, makes Christ present in all our families and in the whole world.

Pray for more young men and women to hear God calling them to the religious life; pray that they

As Jesus was led to the cross his passion for every one of us was

“What a beautiful lesson of obedience is given to us in the divine Child of Nazareth. There is no evidence that He ever gave to Mary and Joseph just the nominal right to command, rather, the Scripture says He lived there in subjection to them.

Imagine, God subject to man – God, before whom the angels and principalities tremble, is subject to Mary and to Joseph. Here are two great miracles of humility and exaltation: the God-man obeying a woman, and a woman commanding the God-man, and that obedience lasted for thirty years.

By this long span of voluntary obedience, He revealed that the Fourth Commandment is the bedrock of family life.

In a larger way, how else could the primal sin of disobedience against God be undone except by the obedience in the flesh of the very God who was once defied. It was Lucifer who said, ‘I will not obey,’ and Eden caught up that echo.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Bishop Sheen Catechism)

FAITH MATTERS 5

revealed: “Father forgiven them for they do not know what they do.”

Jesus Christ will free us from this virus as he alone can do. Let us then be faithful servants of Jesus Christ as we turn away from all sin and cling to him and his Church knowing with certainty he will deliver us from all evil.

6 JUSTICE

Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

“Justice Has Finally Triumphed” Cardinal George Pell Acquitted Maike Hickson

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and thus a former colleague of Cardinal George Pell, has expressed his joy about Cardinal Pell’s release from prison after Australia’s High Court acquitted Pell of his convictions of child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell was released from an Australian prison on Tuesday

7th April, after 14 months of imprisonment for an alleged crime of sexual abuse. The Australian High Court reviewed Cardinal Pell’s appeal and, according to its statement, granted “special leave to appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria and unanimously allowed the appeal. The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought

to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place.”

Cardinal Müller showed himself relieved that “justice has finally triumphed, after a shameful failure

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

JUSTICE 7

of justice and the orgies of hate that ridicule all reason.”

“Cardinal Pell is free again,” the German prelate continued, adding that “now, in this Holy Week of Suffering and Death, we remember Christ, ‘who with his suffering set an example for us: when he was reviled, he did not revile … but left His cause to the Just Judge’ (1 Pet. 2:21–23).”

Cardinal Müller called the previous condemnation of Cardinal Pell a “bending of the law before everyone’s eyes” and reminds us that “God alone is the Righteous Judge before whom we answer.”

He said: “Even if the enemies of the Church of Christ had triumphed here — with their bending of the law before everyone’s eyes — Cardinal Pell and all those persecuted for their faith could still have appealed

John Lacken with Cardinal Pell, & Fr Mark Withoos

to God’s justice. Even if the persecutors of the Church of all times scoff at our hope for heavenly justice, they will not be able to escape responsibility at the Last Judgment (cf. Rev. 6:19).”

Cardinal Müller also called upon the Catholic Church’s own court so that they, too, may pronounce Cardinal Pell free of guilt. Müller stated: “Many are now praying that

Cardinal Pell will now also receive justice before the ecclesiastical court.

Cardinal Pell stated yesterday that “I have always maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice.” He was grateful for his release and thanked all those who prayed for him and supported him.

8 LITURGY Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

Remembering Past Times Mary Kearns

“We never knew the word “liturgy” but we were always aware of the seasons in the Church’s year.”

Alice, now in her eighties reflects on her experience of the Church’s liturgy in the Ireland of the 1950s.

The coming of spring meant the Triduum to St. Brigid. Then on the feast-day itself the first of February, there were pilgrimages to the holy well and to the shrine of the saint.

But soon it was going to be Lent and that was a well-marked time of the year. Many got up for early Mass before work, and there were devotions in the evening. Fasting was on every day except Sunday and St. Patrick’s Day was looked forward to like an oasis in the desert of Lent.

Life was lived against the background of the Church. There were always devotions and this meant the rosary, sermon and Benediction. There was the Monday night perpetual novena to Our Lady; Tuesday night, the men’s Confraternity and Wednesday the women’s Confraternity. We also had May Devotions, the novena to St. Joseph and October Devotions in honour of the holy rosary. Then there were devotions for Advent, but these were never so well attended.

Mothers of families were busy with baking and other preparations for the coming of baby Jesus at Christmas. Everyone took part in the holy week ceremonies and the great celebration of the Lord’s resurrection meant that ladies had a new hat - an Easter bonnet!

Every two or three years the parish mission took place, usually in the month of May. Alice remembers

“There might be a few people who didn’t go to the mission but I never knew any. Every seat in the church was full and if you didn’t go you had to be sick or have a new baby with no-one to mind it.”

This was serious business and the mission priests were awesome figures. The first week was for the women and the second for the men.

Separate sermons were given on the sixth and ninth commandments, the necessity of avoiding immodest conduct, impure thoughts and the occasion of sin. It would be improper to address these topics in mixed company.

The commandments were dealt with individually. Alice remembers the sin of gossiping about the neighbours and how a person’s character could be defamed by calumny and detraction. If you told a lie about somebody it was calumny, but detraction was even worse because it was the truth about someone’s wrong-doing that you had no right to reveal. The

missioner’s voice thundered from the pulpit.

Sins against honesty had people shifting uneasily in the pews. If you took so much as a pencil home from your place of employment you would burn in purgatory unless you made restitution.

But there were lighter moments.

The missioner often told a joke or two before he got down to serious matters. Alice chuckles as she recalls an incident involving a lady who suddenly remembered she had forgotten to turn off the cooker.

She scribbled a note and indicated to her neighbours in the pews to pass it along to her daughter who sat at the end. However somebody misunderstood this intention and handed the note up to the pulpit.

You can imagine the poor lady’s consternation when the missioner read aloud “Go home and turn off the gas.”

The closing of the women’s mission was on Sunday afternoon as the

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice men’s week would begin that same evening “You couldn’t go to the closing unless you had a new hat, and maybe a new costume. Well I remember the sight of these beautifully dressed women on a sunny Sunday afternoon coming to the Church, each hatted and gloved to perfection. It was the beginning of summer and we were all decked out in our best.”

June brought the other great feasts of the Church - the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.

Pentecost was also known as Whitsunday and Whitmonday was a holiday as well. You were not supposed to swim in the sea until after Whitsunday. Then there was Corpus Christi. Every town had its procession through the streets.

We walked in front of the Blessed Sacrament which was reverently carried under a canopy by the parish priest flanked by all the priests of the parish. They were all vested and were followed by clergy from the religious orders of the town.

Then there was a break for the summer months until the Feast of the Assumption on the 15th August.

Even so, every Sunday evening throughout the summer there were devotions in the church, and additionally on the first Sunday of the month there was a holy hour with Exposition. The Sundays were known as “Sundays after Pentecost” right up to the feast of Christ the King in October. This kept the significance of Pentecost always in mind.

November, the month dedicated to the Holy Souls, began on the 2nd with men and women of all ages, praying the special prayers to gain a plenary indulgence for their departed relatives. On that day it was possible to gain this indulgence by praying for the Pope’s intentions

while visiting a church. Provided you fulfilled the conditions of Holy Communion and Confession, every time you went in and said those prayers you gained the indulgence.

At every Catholic church you could see the people walking outside for a few minutes then going back into the church as every visit entitled you to a new indulgence and who would waste that opportunity?

Of course every Catholic went to Mass on Sunday - the women with their heads covered and the men with heads bared. In fact the whole week was almost like a preparation for Sunday Mass. You wore your good clothes so these had to be washed and pressed in time.

Nobody would wear a new pair of shoes until they had first worn them to Mass.

Boys who wore short trousers until about fourteen, had to have knees scrubbed and girls were decked out with straw bonnets. On Saturday night all shoes were polished and Sunday clothes laid out.

Children carried prayer books from which they would be expected to follow what the priest was doing at Mass - Latin on one side and English on the other. Ladies were

LITURGY 9

told if they wore a headscarf it should be a plain one without pictures of Lourdes or Rome as this could distract those who knelt behind them. Most ladies however, would wear a hat and not a scarf on Sunday. Headscarves were for daily wear, not for Sunday.

Looking back on what it meant to be a Catholic in Ireland in pre-Vatican II days one can sense a rhythm of life structured around the Church’s liturgical year. Alice reflects: “There was a lot of strictness and the ones in authority were sometimes very hard. At the same time we had a sense of security and belonging to something bigger and better than ourselves. Everyone I knew was a Catholic and there was great respect for priests. I think what Pope John was trying to do by the Council was bring more love into the ordinary person’s experience of the Church without losing what we had. You can’t help thinking afterwards that maybe the baby got thrown out as well as the bathwater.”

For catechesis and liturgical formation please email marykeenankearns@gmail.com 087 7794687

10 LETTERS Catholic Voice

Letters

24th April 2020

Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie

Bishops Must Speak Out

Covid-19 Contradiction

Strange Times

Dear editor,

Dear editor,

Catholics in Ireland have not had sound teaching from our Bishops for decades now. This has left them defenceless against all the evil that has taken place. Some priests who tried to give good teaching found themselves reprimanded by their Bishop. Nor has there been any defence of marriage or the family by our Bishops, some even attacking the family.

The recent criticism of the comments of John Carson MLA that what’s happening is divine chastisement, by media and political colleagues has been welcomed by many. However, it’s intresting that Cardinals Burke and Cordes along with other prelates and a growing number from the pro-life organisations concur with the DUP MLA.

Is this the Dies Irae - Day of Wrath?

Is this a judgment on a stubborn world?

Defied the One who authored Life and Love?

Or is this day a harvest time for Christ To fill the Eternal Barns above?

Catholics in Ireland now find themselves without Mass. In one parish Catholics found themselves locked out of their Church while Mass was being offered. At the same time Muslims were invited, during the Mass, to pray from the pulpit. They prayed the ADHAN which is not prayer as we know it, but a declaration of triumphalism over all religions other than Islam.

We have come to the point where Christ is openly mocked during His Supreme Sacrifice by members of a religion which has as its aim the wiping out of Christianity, or its complete submission.

When we see daily the contradiction of such illuminaries as the deputy first minister and the up and coming politicos such as Matthew O Toole of the SDLP calling for us to save lives in these difficult times and then welcoming with open arms the prospect of the butchery of the unborn after March 31st, the views of Mr Carson maybe not to far of the mark!

If our Bishops do not speak of the great evil that has been done it will be further evidence that the Faith is being destroyed from within and will show that our Bishops have not only abandoned their flock, but have joined the wolves, and shown them how to savage the flock.

David Kelly, Drumlin, Dublin.

Fr John McCallion M.Phil c.c Coalisland, Co Tyrone.

You, who once upon the waters walked, Who cured the lame and blind, Now hold the title-deeds of Life: The fate of all mankind.

Do you hear the sound of silence On your deserted street, Or pass with head bowed low The friend you may not greet?

Is this your pruning hook upon a world Grown grey with wild and wicked weeds?

But having pruned, new shoots will blossom forth To fill our land with pleasant meads.

Frank Holohan

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

DIVINE MERCY 11

God’s Perfect Mercy – A Meditation for Divine Mercy Sunday Monsignor Charles Pope

We live in times in which mercy, like so many other things, has become a detached concept in people’s minds, separated from the things that really help us to understand it.

For indeed, mercy makes sense and is necessary because we are sinners in desperate shape. Yet many today think it unkind and unmerciful to speak of sin as sin. Many think that mercy is a declaration that God doesn’t really care about sin, or that sin is not a relevant concept.

On the contrary, mercy means that sin does exist. Thanks be to God for the glory, the beauty, and the gift of His mercy! Without it, we don’t stand a chance. I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly going to need boatloads of grace and mercy to make it. Only through grace and mercy can we be freed from sin and healed from its effects, or ever hope to enter the presence of God’s glory in Heaven, of which Scripture says, But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false (Rev 21:27). Somebody say, “Lord, have mercy!”

Mercy does not mean there is no judgment; mercy exists because there is a day of judgment. Mercy does not mean there is no Hell; mercy exists because Hell does.

Somebody say, “Lord, have mercy!” Without mercy we are lost.

With it we stand a chance, but only if we accept our need for it. Mercy, Lord, have mercy!

Oh, thanks be to God for mercy! So let’s consider the glory and the gift of mercy on this Sunday of divine mercy. The Gospel for today’s

Mass speaks both to the need for mercy and the glory of it. Let’s look at four teachings on mercy, God’s perfect mercy.

I. The Prelude to Mercy – There is an old saying that if you don’t know the bad news, the good news is no news. And thus as this Gospel opens we enter a room where ten Apostles are gathered in

fear; the doors are locked. These are broken, troubled, and disturbed men. All of them but John had fled, deserting the Lord. One of them had denied even knowing Jesus, not once but three times. Here they are, humiliated, downcast, and sinfully without faith. Never mind that Jesus had told them on numerous occasions that He would rise on the third day. Even though

12 DIVINE MERCY Catholic Voice several women and two disciples from Emmaus had said they had seen Him alive, on this the third day, these men persist in sinfully rejecting this news that conformed to His promise. Yes, we enter a locked room of fearful men who are downcast, disgraced, and disbelieving.

But most of all, many are confused and angry because they don’t know forgiveness. Consider what Psalm 32 says so beautifully:

But it is here that we find the prelude to mercy! They are about to be blessed and to experience profound mercy.

Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away, whose sin is forgiven, to whom the Lord imputes no guilt! … As long as I would not speak of my sin, my bones wasted away and your hand was heavy upon me.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I did not hide, and you took away the guilt of my sin!

One of the great errors of our day is the proclamation of mercy without repentance, without reference to our sinful condition. So many pulpits have gone silent on sin!

You see, the key to having this blessed state is the acknowledgement of sin. Tthe glory of mercy is unlocked by the acknowledgment of sin.

But the point of mercy is not to go out and tell others how terrible they are, but rather to tell them about the forgiveness of sin! Now this is why we need a mercy Sunday.

On the one hand we’re living in rebellious times, times in which many are dismissive of sin and have refashioned God into just a nice fellow who doesn’t really care all that much about sin (despite what His own scriptures say to the contrary), reducing mercy is to mere kindness and a sort of blindness on God’s part.

On the other hand these are also times when many are scared and angry with God, rejecting His judgments and glorious moral vision. A lot of people know that their lives are in disorder: their families are broken; they are confused; greed, materialism, lust, and other sinful drives are taking a heavy toll. Many are angry with the Church because deep down they know we are right; they don’t like being reminded that people don’t have any business calling good what God calls sinful.

II. The Peace of Mercy – Into this upper room filled with men who are dejected, disgraced, doubting, humiliated, hurt, sinful, and sorrowful, the Lord came. The text says, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.”

Do you see the glory and the gift of this moment? The Lord says to them, “Peace be with you.” Now I don’t know about you, but if I had been hiding out, denying Him, and running from responsibility at the critical moment, and then suddenly the Lord whom I had let down and offended appeared, I might be a little nervous! But what does the Lord say to these embarrassed and dejected men? “Peace be with you!”

What is peace? It is more than the absence of conflict or division.

Peace is the presence in a relationship of all that should be there: justice, integrity, reciprocity,

24th April 2020

mutuality, and so forth. The Greek word used is eirḗnē, which is from the root eirō meaning “to join or tie together into a whole.” So it means wholeness, a state in which all essential parts are joined together.

Peace is God’s gift of wholeness.

In English, the text says that they rejoiced. But here, too, the English translation does not capture the richness of the Greek word ἐχάρησαν (echarēsan), which means to delight in God’s grace. It means to powerfully experience God’s grace (favor), to be conscious of and astonished by (glad for) His grace! This is no mere passing happiness. This is abiding astonishment at the sheer gift of God’s mercy and grace. The Apostles do not just get happy for a moment; they are given the gift of stable, serene, confident joy at the unfathomable gift of God’s mercy and goodness. They had sinned and yielded to fear; they had run from the Lord and ignored His teaching; but the Lord stands before them and says “Shalom, Peace be with you. May the full favor of the Lord be with you. May you experience that God is pleased that you are well and seeks to draw you more deeply into His love.”

Here is mercy; sweet, beautiful, soul-saving mercy; and astonishing and unexpected grace! There is shalom; there is peace; there is deep, abiding, and confident mercy. It is a joy and mercy that is unmerited. It is stable because it is rooted in the stable and abiding love of God. III. The Priesthood of Mercy – The text says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice There is not time here to develop a full apologetic of the Sacrament of Confession entrusted to the Church.

But to those who say, “I don’t have tell my sins to any priest, I can just go straight to God,” the Lord Jesus never got your little memo. He gave the power to forgive sins to the Apostles and their successors.

That is clear in this passage. The Lord does not do pointless, foolish things; what He says here is to be taken seriously. He tells these imperfect men, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

There is something deeply personal, even if imperfect (on account of the imperfection of priests), in the way the Lord wants us to experience his mercy. But the emphasis is on the personal.

There is just nothing that surpasses the way the Lord can convey his mercy in the deeply personal way of the confessional. There is nothing more precious than those words that conclude every confession: “I absolve you of your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Go in peace. Thanks be to God!” The Lord did not want his mercy to depend on some self-generated notion that mercy was extended.

He wanted us, for whom faith comes by hearing, to hear those precious words: “I absolve you from your sins … Go in peace.”

There is nothing more wonderful and certain than those words spoken by the Lord through His priests.

IV. The Prerequisite of Mercy – But one of the Apostles, Thomas, was missing. Here was the most wounded of all the Apostles, so

wounded that he drew back from the only place mercy could be found, for where two or three were gathered the risen Lord appeared in the midst of them. In drawing back, Thomas blocked his blessings.

The point is this: the Lord unfailingly offers His mercy. He says, No one who calls on me will I ever reject (Jn 6:37).

The question is, will we call on him? There is only this one need, this one requirement for mercy: that we ask for it. Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20). The door to our heart and to repentance must be opened from the inside. The Lord will not force His mercy. This is why there is a

DIVINE MERCY 13 Hell. Without God’s mercy we are doomed; we don’t stand a chance.

His mercy is free except for this price: we must surrender our pride, admit our need, and open the door.

St. Thomas fell to his knees, astonished by the Lord’s mercy; such mercy, such a glorious gift.

“My Lord and my God!” The Lord never stopped calling Thomas. The Lord did not give up but waited until Thomas answered the door.

Mercy! So great, so divine, so perfect. It is a mercy that does not deny the need for its own existence.

When humbly received, it conveys peace through the priesthood that Christ Himself established. It is a mercy which, as a prerequisite, respectfully knocks and waits for our “yes.” Lord, give us your perfect mercy.

THANK YOU! We would like to sincerely thank the kind readers who have supported us with a donation recently to help keep Catholic Voice published during this challenging time.

14 CATHOLIC CHURCH Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

Killing Children At Home and Purchasing Pet Food are Permitted Receiving Holy Communion is Forbidden

John Lacken

Let us pause for a moment to offer up one Hail Mary for our Irish bishops. Great is their need for our prayers in these times when the sacraments are being denied to faithful Catholics. Our bishops, and may I say not without reason, are failing to feed the flocks that have been entrusted to them by Jesus.

In the parable of the unjust steward, told to us in St Luke’s Gospel, our Lord tells us, “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” (Luke16:8) So how have the children of this world behaved during the Coronavirus crisis and were they, like the unjust steward, successful in their endeavours?

On Thursday 26th March, 2020, deputy Roisín Shorthall, during the debate on the “Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020” said the following.

“Another issue that has been brought to our attention by several groups, including the Irish Family Planning Association, is the position of the current rules around abortions. The current rules are effectively unworkable in the present circumstances with regard to the three-day wait periods and the need for repeat visits. This should be dispensed with for the duration of the emergency. I hope this will receive early attention because it is a real and present issue.”

RTE reported that “Meanwhile, Minister for Health Simon Harris told the Dáil he is revising abortion guidelines so that women seeking early abortion can consult with doctors remotely - this will only apply during Covid-19 emergency.”

Reacting to this, Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland said, “Minister Harris’ comments are very welcome for women across Ireland who will need abortions during this time. Abortion care is time sensitive and we welcome the fact that access will be maintained throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.”

“Current practice requiring women to leave their homes for two faceto-face appointments contradicts advice to stay at home during the pandemic and scheduling these consultations may become increasingly difficult given demand for COVID-19 related care, especially for women who already face barriers in accessing

healthcare, such as Traveller women, migrant women, and other marginalised groups.”

There were reports on Tuesday 6th April that Simon Harris has indeed revised the guidelines so that children may be killed in their own homes without their mothers having to visit a doctor.

Whilst I could not find a copy of these new guidelines on either the HSE or Department of Health websites, a quick visit to the Irish Family Planning Association’s website revealed that they intend to operate according to the alleged terms of the new guidelines. They say, Early Abortion Care “You will have two telephone consultations with a doctor, three days apart. A member of our specialist pregnancy counselling team will work with the doctors to ensure you have all the information you need and receive the best care possible.

After your second phone consultation with a doctor, we will provide you with a home management pack. This must be collected from the clinic.”

Here is an example of how the children of this world operate. They take the necessary steps to make sure that the public has access to their child killing services, even though there is a global pandemic sweeping the world.

Another example I would like to give, without trivialising the killing of children, concerns the care of pets. A few years ago,

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice I bought a guinea pig for my youngest daughter. The guinea pig, affectionately named ‘stvoggles’ has since died. On purchasing the guinea pig we signed up for text alerts from the pet shop. I received one such text on Wednesday 8th April informing me that the pet shop would be open on Monday 13th April for my pets “essential needs”.

was nothing remotely Catholic in my choice, such was my poor formation at school.

These two examples show us in a very stark way, the reality of Catholic life in Ireland just now.

I predict that the decline of the Catholic Faith in Ireland will accelerate once the Coronavirus passes, because our bishops have willingly complied with government directives which state that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrament of Confession, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, indeed that the Catholic Church itself, is not necessary.

The Wikipedia article on St Damien, shows some interesting comparisons with the Coronavirus.

It is believed that leprosy came to the Hawaiian islands from migrant Chinese workers.

The pro-abortionists lobbied the government in order to make sure that they would be permitted to continue their services, which includes the killing of children, during the coronavirus.

Our bishops did not lobby the government to make sure that the life giving sacraments would be made available to Catholics during the Coronavirus.

My confirmation name is Damien. I have to confess that the only reason I chose the name was because a friend’s brother in primary school was called Damien and I liked the sound of the name. There

CATHOLIC CHURCH 15

Subsequently, on the 11th October 2009, Fr Damien De Veuster was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI. He is known as St Damien of Molokai, the Saint of the Lepers, and I became interested in him on account of my confirmation name.

In 1865, the Hawaiian King Kamehameha V and the Hawaiian Legislature passed the “Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” which quarantined the lepers of Hawaii. Sounds familiar to our current situation with a virus that originated in China and strict quarantine measures being imposed on entire populations.

What was the response of the Catholic bishop of the area?

He sought priest volunteers to go and help the lepers. They were to teach them the Catholic Faith and administer the sacraments of the Catholic Church to them.

Here are some quotes from Fr Damien which are relevant to our current situation and which show us the saintly Catholic response to contagious diseases.

Notice of Church Closure in Knock

“I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.”

“The Eucharist is the bread that gives strength... It is at once the most eloquent proof of His love and the most powerful means of fostering His love in us. He gives Himself every day so that our hearts as burning coals may set afire the hearts of the faithful.”

“Without the Blessed Sacrament a position like mine would be intolerable.”

Let us unite our current sufferings and deprivations to Jesus and let us ask God, as we approach Mercy Sunday, to send us courageous shepherds who will not shirk from their duty to feed their flocks with the flesh of Jesus Christ.

16 THE PASSION

Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

The Instruments of the Passion Canon Joseph Heppelle - I.C.K.S.P.

All the graces we receive were merited by our Lord Jesus Christ in His passion and death on the cross. The saints knew this well, and they never tired of meditating on our Lord’s sorrowful passion.

To help us better contemplate our Saviour’s Passion, Christian artists have painted and sculpted the crucifixion in every style from antiquity to our own day. During the Middle Ages, the practice of depicting the various instruments of the Passion developed to help people call to mind the various sufferings our Lord endured.

The Cross The chief instrument of the Passion is of course the Cross itself, which has become the chief sign of our holy Faith. We begin and end prayers with sign of cross.

All blessings and exorcisms are made with the sign of the cross.

Many saints have worked miracles with the sign of the cross. St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, discovered the True Cross under mount Calvary in Jerusalem c. 327 AD. She brought a good portion of it to Rome where it is now in the basilica of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce).

The crown of thorns was long venerated in Jerusalem during the first millennium before being translated to Constantinople. In the 13th Century St. Louis IX brought it to Paris where he built the magnificent Sainte Chappelle to house it. After the French Revolution it was moved to NotreDame Cathedral. Providentially,

The Instruments of the Passion by Hieronymus Wiericz (1553-1619) the Paris fire brigade managed to rescue it during the fire which engulfed Notre Dame in April 2019.

There are no longer any thorns on the crown however, as one by one they were removed to provide other shrines in Christendom with a piece of this sacred relic.

One saint who had a special devotion to Our Lord Crowned with Thorns is St. Rita of Cascia.

One day when praying before a crucifix she received a thorn wound on her forehead. For the rest of her life this wound caused her much suffering by which she gained much merit.

The Lance Another instrument is the lance which pierced the side of our Lord.

The Roman soldier who preformed this deed is St. Longinus. According

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice to tradition, he is also the soldier who exclaimed: “Indeed this man was the son of God.” (Mk. 15:39) Saint Longinus converted and eventually returned to his hometown of Lanciano where he preached the Gospel and won the martyr’s crown.

During the middle ages the Holy Lance entered into the popular conscience of Christians, and figures prominently in the Arthurian legends of the Holy Grail. The real holy Lance, however, was venerated in Jerusalem during the early centuries of Christendom.

Saint Antonius of Piancenza recounts having seen it there along with the crown of thorns in 570 AD. As with the crown of thorns, it was later transferred to Constantinople.

It seems that at some point the tip of the lance head broke off from the main body of the lance. This tip was latter transferred to Paris during the reign of St. Louis, but disappeared during the French Revolution.

The lance itself fell into the hands of the Turks when they conquered Constantinople in 1453. Happily for Christians, Sultan Bayezid II sent it to Pope Innocent VIII in 1492. The sultan meant it as a bribe, for his brother and rival was, at that time, a prisoner in Rome and Bayezid was not at all anxious to see him freed.

In these circumstances, Innocent VIII and his successors were highly sceptical of the authenticity of this relic until someone in the 18th century proved to Pope Benedict XIV’s satisfaction that it was a perfect match to the relic in Paris.

The Nails & Hammer The nails and a hammer are another set of instruments of the Passion.

The true relics of the nails are now impossible to determine as there are over thirty claimants from various shrines across Europe. The Roman basilica of Santa Croce, however, claims that its nail was brought to Rome by St. Helena when she brought a the piece of the True Cross which also rests there.

The nails are intimately connected with the Sacred Wounds of our Lord. Several saints have been granted the privilege of bearing the “stigmata.” The case of St. Francis of Assisi is exceptional, however, in that for him the stigmata included some resemblance of nails in the wounds of his hands and feet.

Among the instruments of the Passion, one must not forget the pillar or column to which our Lord was bound when He was scourged along with the whips used for this torture. While the scourges seem to have disappeared, the column was long venerated in Jerusalem before being brought to Rome by

by Cardinal Colonna in 1223. It can now be found in a magnificent reliquary in the basilica of St. Praxedes.

Christian piety expands on the notion of instruments to include articles related to the Passion even if not an instrument of torture in the strict sense. Thus in images of the Instruments of the Passion one often sees: the ladder which Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would have used to take our Lord’s body down from the cross; pincers for removing the nails; myrrh and the shroud for embalming our Lord’s Body; Veronica’s veil; a sun

THE PASSION 17 and moon to represent the darkness at midday; 30 pieces of silver; the purple cloak; the cock; one or sometimes seven sword(s) of sorrow which pierced our Lady’s heart; the seamless robe of Christ; the dice with which the soldiers cast lots; and the title-board on which was written “Jesus of Nazareth.”

This last relic is also conserved in Santa Croce in Rome.

Christ Suffered for Us During Holy Week and beyond we should remember how much our Lord suffered for our salvation. If we always held before our eyes and in our hearts the image of our Suffering Saviour, we would never sin again. Let us promise Him that His suffering will not be in vain.

Let us repent from our evil ways and turn to the Lord our God with our whole heart.

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24th April 2020

Exit Strategy The End of the Chinese Pandemic is in Sight Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Hope is one of the three cardinal virtues. During these dark days, there does not seem to have been all that much of it around. So let me help. But first, warmest congratulations to Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, for having the courage to redeploy himself to the front line and resume his practice as a doctor so as to care for Irish victims of the Chinese pandemic.

Now that much of the world is locked down, with politicians unable to say when or how the lock-downs will end, vast – but temporary – economic damage is being done. In a war, the capital stock without which no economy can recover quickly has been bombed flat and has to be rebuilt.

But the Chinese virus does not flatten buildings, destroy factories, dams, roads and railways. The economy can – and will – pick up where it left off, as soon as the lock-downs can safely be brought to an end.

First, though, are the lock-downs working? The answer is Yes, and I shall now prove it with the Lockdown Benchmark Test.

The test compares the mean daily compound growth rates in Chinese-virus infections for a dozen countries and for the world excluding China, whose case and death statistics are demonstrably, deliberately, and dishonestly understated.

The case growth rates are the mean rates for the successive seven-day periods ending on dates from March 14, when Mr Trump

Fig. 1. Mean compound daily growth rates in confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection for the world excluding China (red) and for 12 individual nations averaged over the successive seven-day periods ending on all dates from March 14 to April 5, 2020.

declared a national emergency, until the most recent data available at the time of writing.

The benchmark graph shows that the various policies adopted by nearly all governments to inhibit transmission of the infection appear to be beginning to work.

Spain, Italy and Norway are doing particularly well in bringing the case growth rate down. As the graphs shows, South Korea (the yellow line along the bottom) remains far and away the most efficient country at controlling the pandemic.

It is unfortunate that Western countries, and particularly the useless Brussels tyranny-byclerk, could not achieve what South Korea has achieved. In South Korea, the lock-down has been strictly limited, allowing businesses to remain open. And yet the compound daily case growth

rate in that crowded country is the lowest in the world, at around 1%.

Here is how they did it, direct from a correspondent in Seoul.

First, testing, testing, testing.

Anyone who feels ill calls a central number to arrange a free drivethrough test. Results are available not in 24-36 hours, as in the UK, but in just six hours.

No one goes to doctors’ surgeries for testing, for that would make the surgeries a focus for transmission.

Anyone flying into South Korea is tested and quarantined at home, where the authorities will telephone thrice a day to make sure you are there. Everyone coming in through the airport has a temperature test and those with fever are admitted immediately to a health centre.

South Korea has carried out close to half a million tests, representing almost 1% of the population. Of

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice these, 10,000 were positive, or about 2%. Contrast that with the State of New York, where 30% of tests are proving positive.

In South Korea 20,000 people with no symptoms – contacts of those found to be infected – are awaiting tests even though they are asymptomatic.

Next, tracing, tracing tracing. The contacts of everyone found to be infected are actively traced. At the outset, some five cases in six were successfully tracked back to a known source, the index patient.

Recently, the average success rate in contact-tracing has risen to 95%.

If anyone is found to be infected, his whole family, contacts, church and workplace will be tested.

If anyone in a nursing home the nursing home gets sick, all residents, all staff , all family members and all visitors are tested.

If a co-worker gets sick, the whole business will be tested, together with those who share the building.

All their contacts and family will be tested.

If a hospital patient gets sick, all staff, all patients, all family and all visitors are tested.

N ex t , se a r c h i n g , searching, searching. Beginning in Daeugu, where a large church congregation was the original focus of infection, all churches, nursing homes, mental institutions and other places where infection might pass readily are tested.

Next, distance, distance, distance.

All mass assemblies were cancelled as soon as China, having at first lied to the effect that the virus cannot transmit from human to human, admitted – catastrophically late – that it could.

Schools are closed, and an online school will open soon.

Next, protect, protect, protect.

South Korea’s chief medical officer – far and away the most impressive of the health officials I have seen interviewed – says that wearing a mask, however homemade, makes a significant contribution to controlling the spread of infection in public. Around nine-tenths of the South Korean population wear masks in public.

To prevent panic-buying of masks, they are rationed to two per person per week.

Hand-washing in South Korea is already standard practice, because the nation has had so much recent experience of epidemics originating in the squalid, filthy conditions that prevail in Communist China – SARS, MERS, swine flu H1N1 etc., etc.

All unnecessary trips outside the home are forbidden. Go to work or to the food shop, but otherwise do not go out.

Since even this partial lock-down may cause psychiatric problems for

THE PANDEMIC 19 some, mental health professionals are at the other end of a hot-line, waiting for anyone to call them for reassurance or advice.

Next, inform, inform, inform.

The South Korean civil defence organization are known as the yellow-jackets (for they wear hiviz jackets). The yellow-jackets provide factual briefings to the public twice daily. No politics: just the numbers and the facts.

The sharing of information with the public is known to have an immensely reassuring effect.

Next, encourage, encourage, encourage. The dead are honoured, the public are given encouragement.

They thank everyone for their efforts.

What, then, should our governments’ exit strategy be?

What is needed above all, and what is still absent in most countries, is the capacity to test the entire population if necessary.

Three forms of testing are necessary, the first two of them at whole-population scale. The first is an antigen test, which looks for

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24th April 2020

the presence of the pathogen. That test shows whether the subject is currently infected. The second, no less important, is an antibody test, which shows whether the subject, having previously been infected, is now resistant to the pathogen.

The third test, which, like the antibody test, is serological, using the polymerase chain reaction method, is capable of detecting not only whole virions in the blood but also, where a successful method of either boosting the immune system so that it destroys the offending particles or of destroying them chaotropically has been found, the fragments of the destroyed pathogens. This form of serological testing does not need to be done at population scale, though where it is available it yields more precise results than the quick and easy swab tests now being performed.

But it is a vital research tool.

The greatest failure of publichealth policy on the part of the various quangos expensively maintained to protect us from pandemics lies in the failure of Public Health England, the late U.S. pandemic response team, the World Death Organization et hoc genus omne to ensure that sufficient supplies of reagents, swabs, testing kits, analysis machines and personal protective equipment were available to test the entire population.

The first step in the Chinesevirus exit strategy, then, is purely logistical. Bring in the Army logistics boys: they do nothing but specialize in getting whatever is needed whenever it is needed.

In all countries currently under lock-down, honest assessments of the necessary manpower and material to test everyone both for antigens and for antibodies, and of

the steps necessary to obtain and deploy them, should be drawn up forthwith and published.

Anyone infected should be isolated, and should not be allowed out even for shopping. Their necessary supplies should be delivered to them by people wearing adequate personal protective equipment.

That will ensure that shops, which analysis of mobile-phone movements shows are the current chief meeting place and inferential source of transmission, cease to act more as centers of infection than of supply.

After two weeks, the infected should be tested again, and so on every week thereafter until they are free of infection and have passed the antibody test. All who have been unlucky enough to be infected but lucky enough to recover and show antibodies should be given certificates of immunity, valid for one year only (immunity cannot be relied upon after that), and released from lock-down provided they carry their certificates with them.

Those not yet infected should remain in isolation at home, and should go shopping only once a fortnight at an allocated time, so

as to prevent overcrowding at the shops. If necessary, the shops will have to remain open 24 hours a day, with extra manpower provided. All shop workers should be provided with effective personal protective equipment.

Once the testing has shown that the prevalence of active cases has fallen back below 1% of population, the lock-down can be progressively eased, on the condition that wherever any new case emerges the most vigorous contact-tracing, testing and isolation of carriers is at once carried out in the fashion that South Korea, the paragon of best practice, has so ably demonstrated.

Look at the graph.

How long will all this take? Once the logistics boys get behind the wheel, it will take a lot less long than you might think. It is they, and not the failed public-death bureaucrats or the spectacularly innumerate politicians, who will be able to answer the timescale question.

Bottom line: It is not only possible but straightforward to bring this pandemic under control, at least at national level. The necessary steps are chiefly logistical.

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 21

Do Not Put the Lord to the Test: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic Allison Low

Imagine being in a desert for forty days by yourself. There is no easy access to the comforts of life. You quickly become hungry and thirsty.

With no sign of civilisation, the loneliness can weigh you down.

And the desert is dangerous. Life is unpredictable, and one does not have full control of every situation.

Within a few days, there can be a temptation to despair. But in the desert, although the silence could be daunting, if you remind yourself that you are a creature, dependent on God and under his loving providence, you can find peace.

This imagery came to mind because, in many ways, this is what life is like during this pandemic.

Each day brings new challenges.

At times life is chaotic, and other times it is at a complete standstill.

There are ever-increasing burdens as those in authority enact further restrictions that impact our schools, jobs, ability to socialise, and most distressingly Mass and parish life.

And this has brought physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual suffering – no one has been unscathed. This crisis has brought us all into a desert. But it is not a time to despair. It is a time to find peace amidst the chaos by putting our complete trust in God and his loving providence.

As I contemplated this analogy further, I recalled the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Lent that we heard a few weeks ago. This account told us about the Spirit leading Jesus into the desert for forty days.

Three aspects of this event stand out as lessons to me for the trials we face in this pandemic.

The First Lesson: Facing Temptations The first line of this Gospel reading is: “At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:7).

The lesson here is we must be aware that in the desert, temptations await us. We must be prepared. We must be intentional about our prayer life.

If we neglect our spiritual health, we will be vulnerable because temptations are inescapable in this life and often intensify with trials and afflictions.

Of the many temptations we may face in our sufferings, we can discover one of them when we look at the word “desert.” It comes from a Latin word meaning “abandoned” or “forsaken.” In our

desert experiences, the tribulations we face can lead us to doubt, to lose trust, and to think God has abandoned us. But we are being deceived – God will never forsake us! Our desert experiences can also cause us to turn inward. We can become so caught up with the struggles of life that we become selfish, and we abandon our neighbours. And worse, we can become so reliant and dependent on ourselves and so focused on our earthly life that we forsake God. Life in the desert can be gruelling.

But some of the best models for surviving are the Desert Fathers and Mothers. These men and women – often religious – lived in the early centuries of the Church and freely chose to spend a portion of their lives in the desert in imitation of Christ.

They did not embrace this life because it was easy – far from it.

This life was extremely trying.

They renounced earthly riches, honours, and the comfort of their

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homes to be alone with God. And they were not fleeing temptations.

Instead, they chose to embrace these trials head-on, knowing that in the desert, temptations are often relentless. But they desired holiness and a perfect relationship with God, and they knew that

by God’s grace, victory over temptations meant becoming more resilient, more humble, and more purified.

The Desert Fathers and Mothers teach us that a desert experience should not be feared, but we must recognise the key to conquering its trials is to rely solely on God. When one of these desert fathers, a monk named Rufinus of Aquileia, was asked what a person should do in the face of temptations, he replied: You should always weep in the presence of the goodness of God. Run to him, and he will help you. It is written, ‘The Lord is my helper; therefore, I pour contempt upon my enemies’ (Psalms 118.7).” [from De Vitis Patrum, Book III, 203] He was then asked how he advised his brothers to pray: You don’t need a lot of words. We should just lift up our hands to heaven and say, “Lord, as you will, and how you

will, let your will be done.” And if beset by temptation or battle, just say, “Lord, help us.” He knows what is best for us. [from De Vitis Patrum, Book III, 207] The Second Lesson: Making Demands on God When we read about the first two temptations Jesus encountered, there is one consistent element. In both, Satan begins with, “If you are the Son of God…” Satan is saying to Jesus: “If you are who you say, then prove it.”

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, people repeatedly asked Jesus to perform miracles to prove himself. Even on the cross, the crowds cried out: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). Pope Benedict XVI speaks about this in his book On the Way to Jesus Christ. He wrote: “This demand for proof runs through the entire story of Jesus’ life; over and over again he encounters the reproach that he has not proved himself sufficiently, that he still must perform the great miracle that will remove all ambiguity and disagreement and make it clear to everyone…” (p. 87)

24th April 2020 We, too, can be tempted to make this same demand. “God, if you exist, then show me, prove it, work a miracle.” And in times of suffering, pain, fear, and afflictions, this temptation can be amplified. Yet this attitude lacks faith because God has shown us through creation, the Scriptures, and in his Church that he exists.

He has revealed he is a personal God who cares about us. And God demonstrated his unconditional love by sending his only Son Jesus to become man and to offer his life freely for us on the cross. And God wants us to abandon ourselves to his loving providence.

But we are not to make demands of God because doing so is grounded in doubt, distrust, and skepticism.

We are attempting to manipulate God. This prohibition is not to suggest we should not pray for miracles or plead with God to intervene in our lives. We must!

But sincere prayer is radically different from making demands.

Authentic prayer is rooted in love, trust, and docility. What the Father asks is that we acknowledge our dependence on him and, then, submit our will to his and put full confidence in him.

Third Lesson: Putting Our Lord God to the Test When Satan tempted Jesus a second time, they were standing on the parapet of the Temple.

Satan told Jesus to throw himself down because if he was the Son of God, then God promised to send his angels to save him from death (quoting Psalm 91). But Jesus replied: “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Matthew 4:6-7).

Jesus is teaching us a valuable lesson. To understand his words, we must look at the context. He

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice is quoting Deuteronomy (6:16), where God chastised the Israelites for having rebelled against him at Massah (an event described in Exodus 17:1-7). This uprising happened early in the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The people became thirsty and complained about their life in the wilderness to the point of doubting God’s presence among them. They were ready to stone Moses and to turn away from God. But Moses pleaded with God. In response, God performed a miracle and gave them water from the rock.

Yet God was not pleased that his people had put him to the test.

When Satan told Jesus to throw himself from the Temple, Jesus reminds us of this same reality: “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” If we test God, we treat God as if he is inferior to

us. We act as if God must submit himself to us and our demands.

We promote the illusion that God is dependent on our wants and needs. And when Jesus refuses to throw himself off the Temple, he shows us we are not to be careless and neglectful with our lives, which especially applies to our current health crisis. We cannot act unreasonably and presume God will intervene regardless of what we do because this is a form of testing God. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus, Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple…

The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 23 and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence and his power” ( CCC 2119).

God loves us. He answers our prayers and intervenes in our lives – and sometimes miraculously. But this does not permit us to test him.

We may not always understand why certain things happen, but we must have confidence that our heavenly Father has a loving plan for us. And he will bring good to those who love him (Romans 8:28).

These Lessons and Our Current Pandemic This pandemic is a desert-like experience in which we will face temptations of all varieties. In particular, we need to avoid making demands of God and putting God to the test.

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In this crisis, recommendations are being made that impose severe limitations on businesses, leisure activities, and our daily lives. An element of control has been taken away from us. These necessary measures have also impacted our ability as Catholics to attend Mass and receive the sacraments. As a result, many are feeling a variety of emotions, including anxiety, sadness, heartbreak, frustration, and anger.

Prudence in a Time of Crisis People can debate these interventions after the fact, but the civil authorities and medical experts are trying to make the best decisions possible based on the models they have. Are the experts overreacting? Underreacting? It is too soon to know. But our bishops and priests must prudently listen to these experts and, through prayerful discernment, make difficult decisions that they believe are just, for the common good and that fulfil their duty of governing and protecting their flock.

And our shepherds must ask the same question we too must ask: how are we to best care for ourselves and each other? In her wisdom, the Church has always emphasised that we must avoid two extremes. We cannot focus solely on earthly things and excessively worry about our body because this leads to a “cult of the body” (CCC 2289).

But at the same time, we are human persons – body and soul. We are not merely spirits who happen to have a body. And while our spiritual health is of the utmost importance, we must take reasonable care to preserve our life. We cannot be

Christ is Tempted by the Devil careless and neglectful of life as it is a gift that has been entrusted to us by God (see the CCC 2280, 2288; and Evangelium Vitae, no 2).

There are many opinions as to how this is best lived out, especially in our current crisis. And it is especially challenging since the situation is unpredictable and changing daily. Our situation calls for prudence and not carelessness, patience and not discouragement, courage and not rashness, trust and not doubt. And now is a time when we need unity and not division, solidarity and not selfishness, hope and not excessive worry.

Together, let us pray for leaders and decision-makers (bishops, priests, politicians, etc.), healthcare workers and researches, the sick and suffering, the people of the world, and for an end to this crisis.

And above all, let us put our trust and hope in God’s loving providence.

And as Pope Benedict XVI explains in his book, the devil misinterprets Psalm 91. God here is not asking us to test him but is teaching us an important truth: Someone who obeys God’s will knows that in all the horrors he may experience, he does not lose a final refuge. He knows that the foundation of the world is love and that, therefore, even in a situation where no man is able or willing to help him, he can still continue walking in confidence toward the One who loves him.

Such confidence, which Scripture encourages us to have and to which the risen Lord invites us, is something quite different, however, from the reckless defiance of God that would make God into our servant (p.94-95).

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

BE CATHOLIC 25

Excerpt from The Atomic Age C.S. Lewis In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

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.

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

26 BLASPHEMY Catholic Voice

24th April 2020

Priest allows Muslim to Chant Islamic Supremacy Prayer During Mass Paul Smeaton A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Tuam invited local Muslims to offer an Islamic prayer during a Mass last Friday that was live-streamed by the parish and broadcast over local radio.

While the prayer was reportedly offered for an end to the coronavirus, Catholic sources have since confirmed that what was chanted was, in fact, the “Adhan,” the Islamic “Call to Prayer” that asserts Islam’s supremacy over Christianity.

Father Stephen Farragher, parish priest of St. Patrick’s Church in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, noted that “Friday is to the Muslim community what Sunday is to Christians” before inviting local Muslims Mohammed Cherbatji and Mohammed Rahmani to offer a prayer of “blessing” for an end to the pandemic and for all frontline healthcare workers.

Fr Farragher said Cherbatji and Rahmani had contacted him because they wanted to do “some act of solidarity,” with the community. He said that “the coronavirus at this time doesn’t respect geographical borders, neither does it respect creed; neither does it respect classes.”

A video of the prayer has been posted online. Church Militant reported that it contacted an Arabic expert and scholar in Islamic jurisprudence who confirmed that the words were an “Islamic call to prayer, which conclusively and unambiguously asserts that God’s revelation to Muhammad has

supplanted and superseded God’s prior revelations to Moses in the Old Testament and to Jesus in the New Testament.”

The words in the Adhan state: “Allah is the greatest. I bear witness that there is no god except Allah.

I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to prayer. Come to salvation.”

It appears that there were Catholic faithful present in church at the time, with church closed in response to coronavirus.

no the the the

Public Act of Blasphemy Anthony Murphy, director of the Lumen Fidei Institute, told LifeSiteNews that the event was “a public and scandalous act of blasphemy” and that under Canon Law a penitential rite should be carried out in the church before it is used again for Catholic worship.

“The chant sung by the Muslims to conclude Holy Mass is known as the ‘Adhan’ and it is a triumphalist text which contradicts the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and proclaims Allah as the one true God,” Murphy said.

“So at the end of Mass instead of giving thanks in the normal way, we have a prayer recited which denies the Trinity – God is denied in His own house, in front of the tabernacle. It is important to note that these prayers took place during the Holy Sacrifice,” he continued.

“This prayer was specifically written as a rebuttal of Catholic

St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Ballyhaunis

teaching on the Most Holy Trinity.

The Muslims deny the Most Holy Trinity by insisting that God is one and that there are not three persons in the one God,” Murphy explained.

They also deny that Mary is the mother of God, saying that she is the mother of the prophet Jesus.

The Archbishop Must Act According to Canon 1211 “Sacred places are desecrated by acts done in them which are gravely injurious and give scandal to the faithful when, in the judgement of the local Ordinary, these acts are so serious and so contrary to the sacred character of the place that worship may not be held there until the harm is repaired by means of the penitential rite which is prescribed in the liturgical books.”

24th April 2020 Catholic Voice

PRO-LIFE 27

Where the Bishops of Northern Ireland Went So Disappointingly Wrong On Abortion John Smeaton The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) recently expressed disappointment at a statement on abortion made by the Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland.

The statement was issued in the context of the British Government’s publication [on 31st March 2020] of a new framework for legal abortion in Northern Ireland which was described by SPUC as “diabolical legislation”. Some of its worst aspects included: Abortion up to and during birth on grounds of disability.

No limit for self-induced abortions.

A woman who kills her child while giving birth will not commit a criminal offence.

Much of what the bishops said in their statement was excellent, unequivocally emphasising the sanctity of human life before birth in simple, direct language: “The life of every mother and her unborn baby matters … Every unborn baby matters regardless of age or ability, gender or background. He or she has the right to be protected in a community where everyone belongs and deserves our respect.”

And the bishops showed great insight and compassion concerning the plight of mothersto-be in difficult circumstances, saying:“Every woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy matters too. She has a right to be cared for within a community where she is protected from any pressure to abort her baby.”

However, where the bishops went so disappointingly wrong was in the following advice they gave to Northern Ireland politicians: “It is to be noted that members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are not left entirely devoid of influence.

Politicians and all people of good will, who recognise the extreme nature of the Regulations, should not meekly acquiesce to their promulgation. The Regulations themselves can be debated by the Assembly and insofar as they exceed the strict requirements of the 2019 Act, new Regulations can be enacted by the Assembly.

We intend to make these points in writing to our MLAs in the coming days and encourage others to do likewise.”

Those words “and insofar as they exceed the strict requirements of the 2019 Act, new regulations can be enacted by the Assembly” have massively disturbing implications for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

These “strict requirements of the 2019 Act” involve the repeal of legislation which, for nearly 140 years, has been the great bulwark – and virtually the only safeguard – against abortion in Northern Ireland: namely, Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. They will also demand that Catholic schools are used to promote and facilitate abortions under the new regime.

The acceptance of abortion within certain conditions on the reasoning that it will avoid something even worse, threatens to deal a lethal blow to the conscience of pro-life politicians who support such as strategy. It may not be possible at present to restore legal protection for unborn children in Northern Ireland but the complete rejection of the government’s abortion framework as a matter of principle is a necessary first step in that direction.

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24th April 2020

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