CatholicVoice Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat
5 June - 18 June 2020
Issue 292
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Global Catholic Appeal
To Pope Francis To the Catholic Bishops of the World
Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Establish as a Universal Practice of the Catholic Church
The Five First Saturdays Devotion of Reparation
I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. (Our Lady of Fatima - July 13th 1917)
2 CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA
Catholic Voice
5th June 2020
Cardinal Burke: ‘Consecration of Russia’ to Our Lady ‘more needed now than ever’ Cardinal Raymond Burke renewed his call for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, saying that the current worldwide coronavirus crisis shows that it is “more needed now than ever.”
Rome Life Forum
The Cardinal contradicted pastors who have called faithful Catholic selfish for wanting the sacraments during the emergency, saying that the lay people’s desire is “at the heart of our faith.” Burke also decried irreverent methods proposed for the Communion of the Faithful.
In a powerful address during the virtual Rome Life Forum hosted by Voice of the Family, the Cardinal connected the errors of communist Russia with the current crisis, highlighting the prominent role that the atheist communist regime of China has played in it. “The consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is more needed today than ever,” he said. “When we witness how the evil of atheistic materialism, which has its roots in Russia, directs in a radical way the government of the People’s Republic of China, we recognise that the great evil of communism must be healed at its roots through the consecration of Russia, as Our Lady has directed.” “Recognising the necessity of a total conversion from atheistic materialism and communism to Christ, the call of Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, in accord with her explicit instruction, remains urgent.” The Rome Life Forum, which ran online from May 20-22, was on the topic “Coronavirus in the light of Fatima: a tragedy and a source of hope.” His Eminence said that the current lockdown is not how God has “called us to live” and observed that there are people using the pandemic to promote a “single
pandemic and decried proposals for arrangements when it ends, including making attendance at Sunday Mass optional for the faithful.
world government,” environmental causes, and even radical changes in the practice of the Catholic faith. The Cardinal was critical of the way some Church leaders have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that there has been a “failure” to announce the Gospel and to insist that the Church be permitted to carry on her mission. “Individual priests and Bishops have been wise and courageous in finding the means to remain close to God’s flock in their care, especially by bringing the Sacraments to those who are ill and dying, but sadly the general impression among the faithful is that their priests have been taken away from them or have abandoned them,” the Cardinal said. “The greater part of the faithful have been denied the Sacraments now for weeks.” Cardinal Burke deplored the interference of the state in the Church’s worship during the
The cardinal raised the subject of the People’s Republic of China, noting that it believes the only acceptable religion in China is China itself. The Cardinal said its role in the genesis of the pandemic, its influence over health authorities, and its power over other nations raised questions. He also called for a return of the study of civics to schools, so that students are equipped “to exercise the fundamental virtue of patriotism.” The Cardinal stressed that the atheist materialism and communism that threatened the Catholic faith in 1917 continues to threaten the world through the People’s Republic of China and drew his audience’s attention to the messages of Fatima. Cardinal Burke enjoined them to pray daily for the conversion of Russia, do penance, and make reparation for sins.
Please see pages 18 and 19 for details on the Global Appeal to Pope Francis and the World’s Bishops asking for Russia to be Consecrated to The Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 13th, 2020. For more of Cardinal Burke’s address, see pages 28 & 29.
SAINTS 3
5th June 2020 Catholic Voice
The Saints’ Attributes - Saint Rita of Cascia Canon Joseph Heppelle I.C.K.S.P.
St. Rita was born c. A.D. 1381 in Roccaporneo, not far from Cascia in central Italy. At the tender age of twelve she was married off to a nobleman named Paulo Mancini. Unfortunately her husband turned out to be a bad man, unfaithful, and by most accounts even abusive. St. Rita by her prayers, patience, and good example eventually converted him to a better way of life. Paulo, however, had made many enemies, one of whom, a certain Guido Chiqui murdered St. Rita’s husband in 1411. St. Rita then saw her two sons take up the quarrel. She prayed to God that they would not commit serious sin and lose their souls. Her prayers where answered. They died of illness before they could murder their father’s assassins. St. Rita was now free to return to her childhood desire of entering the Augustinian convent in Cascia, or so she thought. As it turned out the convent in Cascia did not accept widows! She prayed to her patron saints: Saints John the Baptist, Augustine, and Nicholas of Tolentino. They appeared to her one night and carried her over the convent wall. Impressed by this miracle, the nuns agreed to accept her if she could bring peace to the feud raging between her husband’s family and the Chiqui family. Again she prayed to her patron saints, and armed with their supernatural help she approached her brother-in-law Bernardo Mancini. By this time, he had fallen ill with the plague, and was beginning to think about the state of his own soul. At Saint Rita’s exhortations, he renounced his desire for revenge and made peace with the Chiqui family. Now, well over thirty years old Rita took the veil. In the convent she was remarkable for the same docility and obedience she had shown as a daughter and wife. No one was more faithful in the observance of the Rule than her.
Throughout her life Saint Rita had a great devotion to the Passion of our Blessed Lord. Doubtless, it was this devotion that gave her the strength to bear her own crosses. One day while meditating on the crown of thorns she was conscious of a great pain in her forehead as if one of the thorns had pierced her own flesh. A miraculous wound did indeed appear on her forehead which soon festered so badly she had to live a quasi hermitical life secluded from the rest of sisters in the convent. During the Holy Year of 1450, the wound disappeared just long enough for the saint to accompany the other nuns on their pilgrimage to Rome. Upon her return to Cascia, the thorn wound reappeared and she bore this mark of union with the Saviour for the rest of her life. St. Rita went to her heavenly reward on 22 May, 1457. Her body is incorrupt and can be venerated in her shrine at Cascia. In art, St Rita is easily recognised by her Augustinian habit and the thorn wound in her forehead. She is usually depicted contemplating a crucifix, or holding a crown of thorns in her hands. Her other attributes are roses and bees. The roses come from a miracle that occurred near the end of her life. On day when she was bedridden from sickness, one of her cousins came to the convent to visit her. The cousin asked if she would like anything from their hometown. The saint requested a rose from the garden of her childhood home. It was January! The cousin did not expect to find any roses, but she went to the garden anyway, and lo, there was a rosebush with a single rose blooming on it. She brought it back to her cousin who gave thanks to God who does wondrous things for those who love Him. The bees come from a legend about her baptism. On the day of her baptism her parents saw a swarm of bees hovering around her cradle.
Some of the bees were flying in and out of her mouth without harming nor disturbing the infant. A similar event had befallen the baby St. Ambrose many centuries earlier. While St. Ambrose’s parents had interrupted this mysterious event as a sign of his future eloquence, Saint Rita’s family understood it to symbolise her future industry, virtue, and devotion. Many people pray to St. Rita for help in “impossible causes.” Like St. Jude, the other saint of the impossible, she often helps her devotees. Yet, we would do well to contemplate and imitate her example. She did not seek the easy way out of her own “impossible situations” in life. Her marriage, was, by all accounts a bad one. She would have qualified for a separation “from bed, roof, and table.” Had she done so, she may still have saved her soul, but she probably would not have become the great saint she is. As it was, she understood the real meaning of our Lord’s words when he said: “whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two.” (Mt. 5:41) She chose the more difficult and more heroic path of remaining with her unfaithful husband, and had the consolation of seeing him convert. By all means, let us ask Saint Rita to solve our most difficult problems, but we would be better if we asked her to help us follow her example in fulfilling our Lord’s advice to go the extra mile!
12 CHURCH MATTERS
Catholic Voice
5th June 2020
Possible New Directives for Holy Mass John Lacken Let us pause for a moment to say one Hail Mary for our Bishops. I was recently sent a draft copy of a working document for the Tuam Metropolitan Province which includes the Archdiocese of Tuam, and the Dioceses of Achonry, Clonfert, Elphin, Galway -Kilmacduagh-Kilfenora and Killala. The document was a draft plan for returning to the sacraments and was sent to all priests of the province. It emphasised that it was only a draft document, so it cannot be taken as official policy. Nonetheless, the document is deeply disturbing on a number of fronts. The introductory letter says that “Any guidelines produced either at national, provincial, diocesan or parish level must be consistent with the Government Roadmap and public health guidelines respecting physical distance, hand hygiene etc.” I find it deeply problematic that the Irish Bishops, whose authority to manage the affairs of the Catholic Church comes directly from Jesus Christ, continue to cede their authority to celebrate the sacraments to the secular state. In this case, the situation now exists in Ireland where it is the department of health, which both oversees and advocates for the murder of innocent children, which now dictates the conditions under which Irish Catholics may attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Whilst this is only a draft document, what I find most disturbing is the
almost total lack of a supernatural outlook. I think that all documents of the Catholic Church whether drafts, working documents, official documents, or documents looking at practical considerations concerning a health risk, should begin and end with Jesus Christ. He is the only acceptable starting and end point. In my view, this document, with its talk of hand sanitisers, perspex screens for Holy Communion or priests wearing face visors for distributing Holy Communion, and empty Holy Water fonts, fails to reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church on our duty to worship and adore Jesus Christ as He Himself wishes us to worship and adore Him, by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by receiving Him in Holy Communion whilst we are in a state of grace. I would like also that the document be firmly anchored in Christ’s words in St John’s Gospel, “ 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.” (John 6:54) Lay Catholics are being deprived of the spiritual life, not totally, but manifestly, as Jesus Christ Himself says above. Up until the beginning of March, my family attended daily Holy Mass in Knock at 8.00am. There were at most 40 people present on any given day. Yet, on Sunday 15th March, (which just so happened to be my 58th birthday), even though
gatherings of up to 100 people were permitted by the state, our Archbishop banned us from going to receive Jesus Christ. He banned us from receiving He, without whom we cannot have life in us. He banned all Catholics in his Archdiocese from attending Holy Mass. Of course he was not alone in this but, what I find hard to understand is, how come so many Catholics appear to be unaware that we are living within probably the greatest spiritual battle of the human race since the day of the crucifixion? For the first time since the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Catholics right across the world have been denied access to the only Food that is truly necessary. Our ancient enemy has laid siege to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and so few realise what is going on, because they think that the problem is being caused by a virus. This is what they have been told by our civil leaders and our Church leaders. The virus is purely incidental and is the means by which our ancient enemy has sought to cover his tracks. Our Lord tells us “fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) In saying this, Jesus puts our bodily health into its correct perspective. The life of the soul is of infinitely more value than the life of the body, and the Food that Jesus
5th June 2020
Catholic Voice
CHURCH MATTERS 13
Christ has given us to feed our souls is His Flesh which we should be receiving at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Neither our priests nor our bishops, have been cut off from the life giving sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist, and I am not sure that they fully understand how misguided and unnecessary is the sacrifice that we laity have been called upon to make. The laws enacted by our government do not stand up to the tests of reason. If my mother, who is almost 87 years of age, is susceptible to the Coronavirus but is in good health and remains within the confines of her own home, why should that prevent her neighbour, who is trying to provide for his own family, from working? How does that benefit either of them? If I can go to the supermarket where they do not sterilise the shelves nor the produce that is on the shelves, which may be handled by many people, why can I not enter the Church in Knock? Humans were not designed to live in sterile environments. Sterile environments damage the immune system because they prevent the build up of the very antibodies which help us to fight off disease. The best way to get the sacraments to the people is to open the churches and allow those who wish to attend Holy Mass to attend Holy Mass with minimal restrictions in place regardless of government approval. The Sacramental of Holy Water, which has the power to cure disease and to keep demons away from souls, has been replaced in our Catholic Churches with hand
sanitiser which does not cure any disease nor has it any power over demons. The material realm has been elevated over and above the spiritual realm even at the doors to our sacred Churches where Jesus Christ waits for us in the tabernacle and at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It seems to me that our ancient enemy is preparing for a great attack on Christ’s faithful and he seeks to weaken us by depriving us of our necessary spiritual nourishment ahead of his next attack. Do I write this in fear? I fear no man, nor devil, I have a Holy fear of God and I mostly fear my own weakness and sinfulness which could lead to my eternal ruin. However, I have great hope in Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Our Lady and in good St Joseph. I am confident that they will do all in their power to lead me and my family to our Heavenly home so long as I am humble and seek first the Kingdom of God and repent of my sins. The document also unlawfully bans Catholics from receiving Holy Communion on the tongue.
Most Catholics today are unaware that the norm of the Catholic Church is to receive Holy Communion on the tongue whilst kneeling. Receiving Holy Communion in the hand is actually an exception that can be permitted by the local bishop, but it has never been the norm of the Catholic Church and it is still not the norm of the Church, even though this is how most Catholics, being badly catechised, now receive Holy communion. As regards whether it is an absolute right, to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, Redemptionis Sacramentum has answered this question. “Therefore, it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing. Although each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice, if any communicant should wish to receive the Sacrament in the hand, in areas where the Bishops’Conference with the recognitio of the Apostolic See
14 CHURCH MATTERS
Catholic Voice
has given permission, the sacred host is to be administered to him or her. However, special care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister, so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.” (Redemptionis Sacramentum 91 92)
the dead; He who raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead; He who raised the son of the widow of Naim from the dead; and He who cured countless people. It is the same Jesus Christ, truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity who wishes to come to us in Holy Communion.
There is no provision in the Catholic Church for refusing Holy Communion on the tongue, there is only a provision for refusing Holy Communion in the hand because of the greater danger of sacrilege that this presents.
Can Jesus raise to life someone who has died from the Coronavirus?
We are being constantly told that our hands are one of the most likely vehicles for transmitting Covid-19 and yet, our bishops insist on giving Holy Communion only in the hand. Is this a case of Cognitive dissonance? When St Paul speaks of obedience to state authorities, he is not telling us that obedience to state authorities is an absolute. He tells us in Romans 13 “Do that which is good” (Romans 13:3) which contextualises our obedience to the state authorities.
Can Jesus still cure illnesses such as the Coronavirus and restore to health those who are infected?
One of the bishops from the province recently stated on local radio that the early return to the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is dependent on the bishops assuring the health authorities that they have taken all the necessary measures required by the health authorities. This bishop is wrong. The Catholic Church has always insisted that its authority is supreme in matters relating to the spiritual well being of the people. The current
5th June 2020 situation, where Catholic bishops abdicate their spiritual authority in deference to the lower and inferior authority of the secular state, is contrary to what the Catholic Church has always insisted upon. This is not to say that the physical health of the people is of no import, but that defending the physical health of the people at the expense of their spiritual health is wrong, as it reverses the order of the priorities for which man was created. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22: 37-39) The command to worship God is greater than the command to love our neighbour, indeed we cannot love our neighbour unless we worship God first. Of course they are not mutually exclusive propositions, they go hand in
We must disobey the state authorities if what they command is evil. No one can say that p rev en t i n g Ca t h olics from receiving Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is good. Whilst there may be times when certain restrictions should be adopted, every effort must be made to ensure that Catholics can receive Jesus Christ and attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with minimal restrictions. We are, after all, seeking access to He who raised Lazarus from
Once Upon A Time In Ireland We All Went To Holy Mass Together
5th June 2020
CHURCH MATTERS 15
Catholic Voice
hand, but God Himself has told us that there is a hierarchy.
whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”
Has God suggested to us the best way we should worship Him? Jesus Christ instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the greatest form of worship. No other form of worship comes near it, because it is the Sacrifice of the Cross where we unite with Jesus’s own offering of His body upon the Cross in atonement to and in adoration of God the Father.
1325 “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us.
1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.
I understand that our bishops are under tremendous pressure and that they are trying their best to make the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass available once again to lay Catholics. That is why it is so important to have recourse first and foremost to Jesus Christ, to Our Lady, to St Joseph, and to beseech the Holy Angels and the Angel of Ireland to intercede for us. The Angel of Portugal brought Holy Communion to the children of Fatima.
1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”
Lay Catholics need to make our voices heard, we wish to return to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we wish to touch the hem of Jesus’s garment that he may heal us.
“1324 The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the
LIBERALISM IS A SIN
This is what we are being denied, the source and summit of our Catholic lives, and this is why I am so disappointed with the draft document, because the document does not do justice to Jesus Christ’s sacrifice in the Holy Mass.
CATECHISM ON MODERNISM
the Catholic hierarchy.
On the 8th September 1907, His Holiness Pope Pius X, issued the Encyclical ‘Pascendi Dominici Gregis’ which translates as “Feeding the Lord’s Flock”. Pope Pius X was aware that the Catholic Church had been infiltrated by modernists who were seeking to undermine her doctrines from within. Father J. B. Lemius, produced this ‘Catechism on Modernism’ in the familiar question and answer format of the time, in order to make the teachings of the Encyclical more accessible to ordinary Catholics and by way of explaining in a clear and concise manner the reasons why the Encyclical was published.
Paperback
Paperback
Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was born on May 21, 1844 in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain. He was a Catholic priest and writer who wrote against Liberalism which he considered a grave sin. He was the editor of the weekly Spanish Catholic magazine ‘La Revista Popular’ for over forty years. He died on January 2, 1916 at the age of 71. This book, Liberalism is a Sin, is particularly relevant to the
times we live in today where Liberalism permeates every aspect of our society and has deeply infiltrated the thinking of many of
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