Catholic Voice 5th June 2020 Issue 292

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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!

4 SAINTLY LIFE

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

Antonietta De Vitis, A recent Italian mystic who lived solely off the Eucharist Patrick Hayes The Catholic diocese of Otranto, Italy is currently examining the virtues of Antonietta De Vitis, a mystic from Nociglia, Italy who reportedly had the stigmata.

Numerous extraordinary cures have been attributed to her, and some have recently been reported in Italian newspapers, two of which we will highlight in more detail below.

Antionetta De Vitis was a quiet woman who lived a very hidden life, however her heroic virtues and remarkable mystical life is becoming more and more known since her holy death in 2004.

In 1950 Antonietta completely stopped drinking and eating; an extraordinary circumstance documented by physicians, that continued for 53 years until her holy death. She was bedridden, and her life was spent entirely in one bedroom of a humble house. Hers was a life of suffering in silence, away from the spotlight - very few people knew her, and even fewer were those admitted to her room.

Birth and Early Life Antonietta De Vitis was born on August 23, 1936 in Nociglia, (Lecce) Italy. She spent her childhood showing mercy and generosity towards her neighbour; she often deprived herself of what little food she had to give it to the hungry, and whenever possible she sought to assist the sick and needy.

Being of limited means themselves, on one occasion when her mother discovered that Antonietta was sacrificing her own food to give to the poor, her mother scolded her harshly.

On the feast of St Joseph, March 19, 1950 at age fourteen Antionetta was inspired to offer herself to the Lord as a victim soul for humanity in union with Jesus. Concerning this complete offering of herself she writes in her diary: “The Lord put the seal on His creature and at fourteen I was His: a virgin bride, fresh of life, with a generous heart, ready to offer Him everything: even a life of suffering that burns” Beginning in the year 1952 her only daily food was the Eucharist; however, as observed by her attending physician who attested the permanent and constant abstinence from food and liquids, the Holy Eucharist was not ingested, but was absorbed by the lingual mucosa, and would disappear completely after a very short period of time.

(-Dr. Arturo Benegiamo of Sogliano Cavour, province of Lecce).

The Stigmata In 1969 she was given the mystical grace of the invisible stigmata, which became visible three years later in 1972. The visible stigmata was documented with medical certificates, in particular that of Dr. Benegiamo di Sogliano Cavour, her attending physician.

Antonietta De Vitis At this point in her life, due to several illnesses, she became completely bedridden, and her life consisted of continual prayer. She was very devoted in reciting the Holy Rosary, offering to the Lord herself and her sufferings. Throughout her life she will have numerous illnesses including tuberculosis, internal bleeding, emphysema and temporary blindness, among others.

Those who attended her stated that her sufferings were offered to God with a smile on her lips and an offering to Heaven. She wrote in her diary: “I sacrifice myself for the Church and for the people of God.” This spirit of offering and generosity was rewarded with many mystical visions including the Virgin Mary, St Padre Pio, St Francis, St Anthony, St Clelia Barbieri and her “..little sister Maria Valtorta, who was unknown to me until she herself gave me her name.”

APPEAL 5

5th June 2020 Catholic Voice

Catholic Voice

Update on Publishing During the Current Crisis

Dear Readers

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6 SAINTLY LIFE Throughout her holy life she asked to take upon herself the pain, the derision and the mistreatment suffered by Our Lord in union with Him, to relieve the weight that Christ has taken upon himself for us. Freely she offered herself a victim soul, particularly for the Church.

Two Recent Miraculous Cures Through Her Intercession There are numerous testimonies of cures attributed to her intercession.

The Quotidiano Di Puglia newspaper reports two of the most recent, which have been attached to the file present in the diocese.

The first reported miracle concerns a child suffering from a very serious congenital pathology, treatable only with a heart transplant: the mother, an unbeliever, tells an acquaintance of hers the fate of her son. Moved by the seriousness of the case, the

Catholic Voice

woman offers to go to the cemetery to pray on the grave of Antonietta De Vitis, “the mystic born in Nociglia and died in 2004 after a life of suffering, prayer and total withdrawal from the world”.

“I don’t believe - warns that mother to the acquaintance, yet leaving a door open to hope - “but if you go to Antonietta, pray also for me and my baby”.

After a few days the boys mother wakes up with a start, because she dreamed of Antonietta De Vitis who said to her: “Stop crying, I’m thinking of the boy. Also in a few days something unpleasant will happen, but don’t worry. “ A few days went by and the boy was taken for chest scans to the “Perrino” hospital in Brindisi where he was being treated, and the cardiologists were amazed: there was no trace of

5th June 2020 the heart malformation. The boys heart was now completely normal.

The “unpleasant something” she was foretold of in her dream concerned the father of the child who had an accident and suffered an injury, which thankfully ended up being nothing serious. Yet one is left wondering - could Antonietta have interceded in that situation too? Perhaps we shall never know.

Nevertheless, the boy’s mother gratefully thanked Antonietta with a phrase written in the cemetery ledger pertaining to Antonietta: “Together with my son I dreamed of you, and what you said then has come true. Thank you!”

The second recent case concerns that of another boy, the son of a doctor who was ill with cancer. The parents prayed to Antoinette, the

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5th June 2020 Catholic Voice “saint of Nociglia” as some locals have begun referring to her as, and it was soon discovered that the boy was completely healed, to the utter surprise of the attending doctors.

Deeply grateful, the boy’s father felt he must thank Antonietta, and so he has informed the bishop of Otranto, to whom he has entrusted the story. Both of these recent cures were reported in several Italian newspapers in 2018.

Some quotes from her diary and letters “... I am in my Jesus, I rest in him, I suffer in him, I agonise in him, sure that what is in me belongs to my Jesus, all His and nothing mine. Like the Mother of Heaven I said “fiat” to the Father, and He, the Most High, accomplishes great things in me even though I am from the earth, because it was She who clothed me with Heaven.”

“I go up to Calvary to reach the top, consuming myself for the Church, for the Pope, for the bishops, for the priests, for consecrated souls, and for the people of God. My offering now rises to the Holy Trinity, at the behest of my Jesus, because of the enormous weight, impossible to walk, bleeding, tortured, powerless as I am, I go to my agony, supported by their help.”

“I have loved everyone, especially those who made me suffer, and I gave my heart to everyone; with particular predilection I have loved, and will love from Heaven, those who have suffered with me, with my loved ones who have loved me, and who have given me a helping hand. Understood by my poverty and misery I ask everyone for forgiveness and prayer for my poor soul, so that my Love will accept it, purified, and worthy of the eternal pastures. My prayer, incessant from the earth, will come down from Heaven beneficial for those who directed me spiritually, for those who loved me with a motherly heart, helped me, comforted me,

SAINTLY LIFE 7

assisted me in long and painful The diocese of Otranto is years of suffering.” examining the virtues of Antonietta De Vitis. In 2013 Antonietta’s “To God the Holy Trinity I give diaries and writings were delivered my soul, my heart, my blood, my to Monsignor Donato Negro, everything, because I did everything Bishop of Otranto, who is currently in my God, the only purpose of my examining at the diocesan level, life. AMEN “ .” the extraordinary virtues and facts concerning her.

Her Holy Death Antonietta De Vitis passed from Antonietta De Vitis gave her life this life on June 19, 2004. She was to God, hidden from the world, 67 years old. There was a edifying praying incessantly and offering message that was found on her her sufferings in particular for the deathbed: Church and for religious. Many in Italy and throughout the world “Clasped to my Crucified One, are hoping that the Church will crucified with Him, I leave the earth officially recognize Antonietta’s for heaven” heroic exercise of Christian virtues.

8 LITURGY

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

Remembering Past Times WHEN WE CANNOT GO TO MASS Mary Kearns

Mary Kearns We must never lose sight of the immense value of being actually present and receiving the sacraments.

Comments are varied with regard to the practice of being virtually present at Mass and receiving Holy Communion spiritually instead of sacramentally. One person observed that since this is not the same as actually being present in the church, the same conditions need not apply. You can be in your pyjamas or even have a cup of tea on the side, without being irreverent.

Others are excessively sad at the reality that we are not at Mass; we are not receiving Holy Communion; we are sacramentally deprived. The words of the spiritual communion are a lovely prayer but that is all.

It has also been said that we can send our guardian angel to Mass in our place. Obviously there are

Catholics who do not have access to the internet and are unable to watch Mass and other devotions and so are even more deprived.

So what should the right attitude be?

verbally with God and heard from him that the desire of the person receiving the Eucharist was the significant factor in the power of grace.

Although this is a very difficult and unprecedented situation, we should draw consolation remembering that as Catholics we have a rich tradition in the Faith.

It would be a good exercise to think of the experience of saints in past times and so learn the best attitude in times of trial, especially with not having access to Holy Communion.

In his encyclical ‘Ecclesia de Eucharistia’ of 2003, Pope St John Paul II wrote:

“This food strengthens little or much, according to the desire of the recipient, whether he receives sacramentally or virtually. He receives sacramentally when he actually communicates with the Blessed Sacrament. He receives virtually when he communicates, both by desire of communion, and by contemplation of the Blood of Christ crucified, communicating, as it were, sacramentally, with the affection of love, which is to be tasted in the Blood which, as the soul sees, was shed through love.

“unlike any other sacrament, the mystery of communion is so perfect that it brings us to the heights of every good thing: here is the ultimate goal of every human desire, because here we attain God and God joins himself to us in the most perfect union. Precisely for this reason it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist.

This was the origin of the practice of “spiritual communion” which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life.”

The spiritual masters referred to

by St. John Paul include two of the four women doctors of the Church.

St. Catherine of Siena in the fourteenth century, spent her life serving the Church. She was a mystic who communicated

On seeing this, the soul becomes inebriated, and blazes with holy desire and satisfies herself, becoming full of love for Me and for her neighbour.” (The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena.)

St. Teresa of Avila has also left us her teaching on spiritual communion. In ‘The Way of Perfection’, this saint wrote: “When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you”( Ch. 35) In his ‘Summa Theologiae’, St. Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian and saint of the Eucharist who gave us the hymns we have traditionally sung at

LITURGY 9

5th June 2020 Catholic Voice Benediction, declared that the desire we have to receive Holy Communion brings about the effect of the sacrament.

“Thus, in reference to Christ substantially contained and signified by the species of bread and wine, one eats his flesh and drinks his blood in a spiritual way if he is united to him through faith and love, so that one is transformed into him and becomes his member.”

(Commentary on the Gospel of John.)

In his analysis of the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dominican theologian Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn makes the point that while Jesus made reception of the Eucharist necessary for salvation “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53) this difficulty is overcome by appealing to the notion of attaining the sacrament by desire.

“One can eat the Eucharist “spiritually” before eating it sacramentally in two ways: in the Old Covenant, where the faithful Israelite ate the physical manna along with the spiritual food provided therein, and in the New Covenant, by a desire of receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist.”

In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, St.Thomas explains: “The person spiritually eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood . . . is made a sharer in the unity of the Church, which comes through charity.”

This does not mean that spiritual communion can be a substitute for being physically present at Mass and receiving Holy Communion sacramentally. In fact, the desire we have for receiving spiritually springs essentially from our desire to receive sacramentally.

Nonetheless, the fruits of a “merely” spiritual communion bring about the forgiveness of venial sins, a greater growth in the virtue of charity and assist in

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building up the Church. Just as the partaking of the manna in the desert by the wandering Israelites was a prefiguring of the institution of the Blessed Eucharist, so too our spiritual communion only makes sense when it is ordered to our actual reception of the sacrament as soon as reasonably possible.

When we are actually present at Mass, we are present at the death of Jesus on Calvary but while we believe this, we acknowledge that it is beyond our understanding. It is hard for us to comprehend something that is outside of time.

Using the analogy of how we experience the sun might help a little. The sun, as we know never goes away. It is always shining but we do not always see it. While the world revolves, it seems as if the sun has disappeared during the night and returns with the dawn. In fact it is the earth and not the sun that turns away. So also the sacrifice of Jesus in which we participate, is eternally present although we do not always experience it.

As we approach the great solemnity of Pentecost we can think of ourselves in the company of Mary, the Mother of the Church whose birth was signified by the coming of the Holy Spirit with fire and wind. Mary was present with the company of the disciples of her Son in the Upper Room, where the Last Supper had been celebrated and where they now were gathered together in prayer.

It is a great consolation for us to realise that by virtue of our desire for Mass and the Eucharist, the grace we receive is increased. At the same time we must never lose sight of the immense value of being actually present and receiving the sacraments. This, we all hope and pray, will be restored in the near future.

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10 LETTERS

Catholic Voice

Letters

5th June 2020 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie

PANDEMIC I see her coming towards me Walking swiftly in the noon-day sun; I can hear the sound of silence On our deserted street, And should I pass with head bowed low The friend I may not greet?

I must step off this path and keep Six feet apart - a coffin length between!

If she or I ignore this rule This wood at noon becomes a tomb.

I do not know if I should walk or run: Two ships that pass - not in the night But in the noon-day sun.

Frank Holohan

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

PROTECTING PARENTAL CHOICE IN THE CLASSROOM

This CD of the compelling talk given by Charlotte McQuaid-Bruen at Catholic Voice annual conference 2019, sums up the proposed sex education to be taught across schools in Ireland in 2020. Parents, grandparents, friends, family members and clergy need to be informed about what their children are going to be subjected to.

Please help spread this talk TODAY. 4 CDs inc p&p €20

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The Faith Dear Editor, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments’’ The Commandments have not been taught in our National schools for 50 years or more, so how can they be kept?

Our Hierarchy have neglected to do their job. I expect they were paid as if they DID do their job. Sad to say there has not been an uproar about this but then we have not complained about any of their negligences.

And I have read that Bishop Fulton Sheen said we should point out to our clergy when this happens .

Would the Catholic Voice put in their Voice both the 10 Commandments of God and the 6 Precepts of the Church, please. Who knows what the result could be!

Thank you for your Catholic Voice and may God bless you and reward you.

John Finn, Virginia, Co Cavan.

5th June 2020

LETTERS 11

Catholic Voice

Letters False Claim by UN / EU re World Population Dear Editor, The U.N., E.U. and certain environmentalists have falsely claimed that the population of the world greatly exceeds what it should be and assert that it should be reduced for the benefit of the environment and preserving wildlife. Almost every country is below replacement level, the result of over sixty million abortions annually worldwide, promoted vigorously by the U.N. and the E.U. No doubt, our environmentalists will be telling us that the side-effects of Covid–19, bringing air travel to an almost complete grounding, public transport almost at a standstill and traffic on our roads to a trickle, will greatly reduce carbon emissions, albeit temporary until the crisis is over. But at what price.

God is in charge, but we are leaving Him out of the equation and we do so at our peril. There are many examples of God’s punishments.

When God allowed many plagues, and wars to happen, when people turned away from Him and were doing all sorts of evil. Then when God asked the prophet Jonah to preach to the people of Ninevah, asking them to do penance for the many evils committed in the city.

They made amends by repenting, doing penance, wore sack-cloth and sat in ashes in reparation for their sins and God spared them.

In the year 1917, the Blessed Virgin asked the three shepherd children in Fatima to tell people to recite the Rosary every day, so that the war would soon end. She told them that wars are the result of the many sins committed in the world.

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

I believe the only solution is for all of us to turn to God, stop offending Him, repent and make reparation for our sins, all the evil that has been done, legalising abortion and unnatural laws in this country and throughout the world. To pray the Rosary every day, while we are waiting for the development of a vaccine.

Corona is Spanish for crown and the corona virus is in the shape of a crown. I suggest we say this prayer.

“O Jesus, by Thy Sacred Head crowned with thorns and by Thy Precious Blood shield us from being infected with coronavirus.

Amen.”

Our Lady also said that if people did not stop offending God, a worse war would happen and would be preceded by an unknown light.

She asked that the Pope consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

If not, the errors of communism would spread throughout the world, provoking wars, persecuting the Church. Some consecrations

were done, but Russia was not mentioned. Our Lady made it known to Sister Lucia that She still awaited the consecration of Russia.

She also asked that people repent of their sins, do penance and continue praying the Rosary. She said if Her requests were heeded, Russia would be converted and God would grant peace to the world and the war would be averted. Her requests were not heeded. The unknown light was seen by millions all over Europe, especially in the southern hemisphere, just months before World War II broke out.

The tremendous Miracle of the Sun which happened on the day and at the exact hour that the Blessed Virgin foretold it would happen and was seen by over 70,000 people confirming that Fatima is a public revelation and not a private one, as some would have us believe - confirmed all that She had said and done. She foretold all that has happened, right up to the present day.

James B. O’ Brien, Donegal.

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.

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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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16 MIRACULOUS MEDAL

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

ST CATHERINE LABOURÉ Saint Catherine Labouré was born in the French village of Fains-les-Moutiers on Friday 2nd May 1806. She was the ninth child of Peter and Louise Labouré. Her mother died when she was nine years old. For a while after her mother’s death St Catherine lived with an aunt.

Her eldest sister Marie Louise, who had taken charge of the family home, desired to enter as a postulant with the Daughters of Charity and so, at the age of twelve, St Catherine returned home.

Even at this early age, St Catherine had a great sense of duty and she worked hard and practiced acts of penance.

She cooked for the family and for up to fourteen farm labourers who worked for her father. She also looked after the families pigeons which numbered around eight hundred. St Catherine used to fast on Fridays and Saturdays, and she also had a deep interior prayer life which sustained the young girl in her onerous duties.

Once St Catherine had a dream where she was in a church whilst an old priest said Mass. After the Mass the priest beckoned to her by she moved away. In her dream the old priest said to her “You fly from me now, but one day you will be glad to come to me. God has designs on you. Do not forget.” Some time later, when visiting a house of the Daughters of Charity at Chatillon-sur-Seine, she saw a picture of St Vincent de Paul and realised that he was the old priest in her dream.

St Catherine desired to enter the religious life but her father resisted her wishes as he needed her at home.

He finally relented when St Catherine was almost twenty four years old, and she entered the postulancy of the Daughters of Charity, in Chatillon-sur-Seine, in January of 1830. In April of that year she entered as a novice sister in Rue-de-Bac in Paris. She began to receive mystical experiences shortly after entering the convent in Paris which she wrote about twenty six year later under the direction of her confessor Fr Aladel.

On several occasions St Catherine was shown the heart of St Vincent de Paul, founder of the Daughters of charity.

“Whenever I left the church at St. Lazare I felt sad, but on my return to the community chapel I seemed to meet again St. Vincent, or rather his heart, which appeared to my great consolation above the little shrine where his relics were exposed. It appeared to me differently each time, on three consecutive days: first a pale flesh colour which foretold peace, calm, innocence, and union; then a fiery red, like a flame of charity in all hearts, and it seemed to me that the whole community would be renovated and extend throughout the whole world; and then a dark red colour, which filled my heart with such sorrow, that I was overwhelmed with a sadness which I found hard to overcome; and though I did not understand why or how, I felt this sadness was caused by the change of Government.”

St Catherine also wrote about other great favours that she received.

“I was also favoured with another grace, which was to see Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, during all my time in the seminary, except when I doubted, or feared I might be the victim of self-deception.”

“During Mass on the feast of the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord appeared to me in the Blessed Sacrament, in the form of a king with a cross on His Breast. At the Gospel it seemed to me that the cross slipped under the Feet of Our Lord, and that all His kingly jewels fell to the ground. Then I was filled with the gloomiest thoughts about our earthly king being dethroned, and despoiled of his royal garments, and from that came thoughts that I cannot explain, about the ruin which would be the result.”

In July, Our Lady appeared to St Catherine after she was led by a mysterious child to the convent chapel.

5th June 2020 Catholic Voice

MIRACULOUS MEDAL 17

THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL Our Lady came and sat on a chair and St Catherine knelt at her feet with hands resting on Our Lady’s knees. Our Lady entrusted many prophetic messages to St Catherine prior to entrusting her with her great heavenly mission. This mission was given to her in November 1830.

were so great. . . . The words. It is a symbol of the graces which I shed on all who ask me made me realize all at once how much we ought to pray to Our Lady, how generous she is to all who have recourse to her, what graces she sheds on all who ask and what joy she feels in bestowing them.”

“On November 27th, 1830, being the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent, at half-past five in the evening, after the point of meditation had been read, it seemed to me that in the midst of the great stillness I heard a noise like the rustle of a silk gown, at the tribune side, near the picture of St. Joseph. Looking that way, I saw the Blessed Virgin in a robe of silk, the colour of the dawn. Over her head, falling on each side to her feet, was a white veil, beneath which her hair was banded with a little narrow lace. Her feet rested on a globe, or rather half a globe at least, I only saw half of it; in her hands she held, surmounted with a gold cross, a ball, which represented the world. Her eyes were raised towards Heaven. Her face was radiant with beauty. Then, all at once, I noticed on her fingers, rings, full of precious stones, the larger shedding the most brilliant rays, and the smaller fainter rays, but each ray became bigger as it fell on to the globe beneath, so that I could no longer see her feet.”

“I do not know whether at that moment I was in Heaven or on earth! but there appeared, round Our Lady, a small oval on which was written in letters of gold, these words:

“To tell you all I learnt and felt at the moment Our Lady offered the globe to Our Lord, is quite beyond my power; but while I was gazing at her an interior voice seemed to say, These rays are the symbols of the favours Our Lady sheds on all who ask. The stones from which no rays come symbolize the graces unasked. Then Our Lady lowered her eyes and looked at me and the voice again explained to me, ‘This globe represents the whole world, France in particular, . . .and each person individually. . . I cannot express all I then experienced, and what I saw, the beauty and radiance

“O Mary, Conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee” and the voice said : Strike a medal after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it suspended round the neck.

Graces will be showered on all who wear it with confidence. . . . Then the oval seemed to turn and I saw the other side of the Medal.”

Father Aladel tells us of the reverse side of the medal “the monogram of the Blessed Virgin, composed of the letter ‘M’, surmounted by a cross with a bar at its base, and under this letter M, were the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which she recognized because one was surrounded by a crown of thorns, and the other pierced by a sword.”

It is very interesting to note that these miraculous events occurred in 1830. This was twenty four years before Pope Pius IX promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of 1854 and just four years later, in 1858, Our Lady would appear to St Bernadette in Lourdes to confirm her Immaculate Conception.

In 1917 Our Lady appeared in Fatima and later, Our Lord revealed to Sr Lucia that he wanted the devotion to the Immaculate Heart put beside devotion to His Sacred Heart, just as they appear on the miraculous medal whose design was given in 1830.

18 CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

The Consecration of Russia to The Immaculate Heart of Mary On July 13th, 1917, Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima, in Portugal for the third time. The children were Jacinta Marto and her brother Franciso Marto aged 7 and 9 respectively, - both of whom have since been canonised, - and their cousin Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, aged 10 at the time of this third apparition.

Our Lady said to the children.

“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners; and say often, especially when you make some sacrifice: ‘O my Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary I offer this sacrifice to Thee.’”

As she was speaking Our Lady showed the children a terrifying vision of Hell with the souls of the damned writhing in agony and being tormented by demons. She then spoke to the children although Francisco was unable to hear her words.

“You have seen Hell — where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wills to establish throughout the world the devotion to My Immaculate Heart.

“If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end. But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you, that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.

“To forestall this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

“If they heed My requests, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated; in the end, My Immaculate Heart shall triumph.

The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and some time of peace will be given to the world.”

On December 10th, 1925, Our Lord and Our Lady visited Sister Lucia at the convent of the Sisters of St Dorothy in Tuy, in Pontavedra, Spain, where she had entered as a postulant the previous October.

They explained how the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was to be done.

The Child Jesus spoke first to Lucia: “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

Then Our Lady said to Lucia: “My daughter, look at My Heart encircled with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to Confession and receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep Me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to Me.”

In 1929, Our Lady again appeared to Sr Lucia at the convent in Tuy, and told her that the time had come for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and for the establishment of the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays as had been revealed during the third apparition at Fatima. Sr Lucia made the request known to her confessors.

In the summer of 1931, while Sr Lucia was in Rianjo, in Spain, she went to pray in the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe to pray for the conversion of Russia, Spain and Portugal. Whilst there she experienced another heavenly locution during which Our Lord gave her a message for the bishops.

“Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command [to consecrate Russia], they will follow him into misfortune. It will never be too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary.”

That what Our Lady requested was not done is clear because the Second World War did take place.

It is astonishing to think that if Our Lady’s requests had been heeded the Second World War with all its bloodshed and death would have been avoided.

It is also obvious that to date, Our Lord’s wishes, as given to us by Our Lady at Fatima, have yet to be carried out as she specifically requested. We have not had the era of peace, Russia has not converted back to the Catholic Faith, and the errors of Russia continue to spread throughout the world even within the Catholic Church.

5th June 2020 Catholic Voice

CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA 19

Global Catholic Appeal

To Pope Francis and the Worlds Bishops Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Establish As A Universal Practice of the Catholic Church

The Five First Saturday Devotion Of Reparation On October 13th, 2020

The purpose of this Global appeal is to gather the signatures of Catholics from all over the World who wish to unite in the appeal to Pope Francis and to the World’s Catholic Bishops asking them to specifically consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as she herself requested. The consecration must be specifically for Russia and must mention Russia by name.

These signatures will be presented to Pope Francis on the 7th October, 2020, with copies of the signatures from each diocese being sent to the relevant Diocesan Bishop asking for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to take place on October 13th, 2020, the 103rd anniversary of the Miracle of Fatima.

The appeal will also ask for the formal establishment, as a Universal Practice of the Catholic Church, The Five First Saturday Devotion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It is hoped to collect the signatures on a country by country basis, or a State by State basis where this is more appropriate. Each country/state will have a central co-ordinator but all Catholic organisations will be encouraged to take part so that the appeal will have as broad a reach as possible and in an effort to avoid any partisanship.

The official launch of the appeal will take place on Friday 19th June, 2020, the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and will close on Tuesday 15th September, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows to allow time to sort and co-ordinate the signatures on a Diocese by Diocese basis.

In Ireland & Northern Ireland, the Lumen Fidei Institute & Catholic Voice will co-ordinate the appeal and printed forms for collecting signatures may be had by contacting:

The Lumen Fidei Institute - 087-1208779 By e-mail - secretary@lumenfidei.ie Signatures can also be given online at www.lumenfidei.ie - click the Global Catholic Appeal Banner We will publish the names of the organisations who will be co-ordinating the signatures in other countries as time goes on.

The focus will be for the laity to get involved in collecting signatures, but the support of Priests, Bishops, Cardinals and religious congregations will be most welcome and a prayer initiative will also be launched to ask Our Lady to grant us success in encouraging Pope Francis to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

This document forms a basic template for what is envisaged and suggestions are most welcome from anyone with ideas as to how best to accomplish this global Appeal.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place all our trust in You. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

St Joseph, pray for us.

20 CHURCH MATTERS

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

Should The Churches Re-Open?

Yes, And Here’s How Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Temporary removal of our freedom of movement and assembly to prevent our health services from being overwhelmed by the Chinese-virus pandemic is just that – temporary.

But many of those who are being paid large fractions of their wages by governments without even having to work for the income are reluctant to go back to work.

Therefore, they argue, they should be allowed to stay at home for just as long as they can get away with it.

For this mercenary reason, and for the more justifiable reason that people are nervous of becoming infected, lock-downs have proven far more widely popular than

governments’ scientific advisers had at first imagined.

reopen. Here is the outline of such a plan.

But the purpose of lock-downs has now been achieved. The curve has been bent, the sombrero squashed, and health services almost everywhere are coping just fine.

It is now known that if you are under 60 the chance of dying from the Chinese virus is less than the chance of dying from the flu that arrives every winter. So there is no excuse for keeping the under60s at home. They can and should go to work, school or university.

And, if they want, they can go to restaurants, pubs, beaches, skateparks, and, above all, churches.

Yet the lock-downs largely persist.

The question the hierarchy should be asking governments is whether there is any justification for continuing the lock-downs at all.

What the bishops need is a plan for reopening the churches – a plan that they can put before governments with a request that on the basis of the precautions it contains the churches can safely be allowed to

If they contract the infection, for nearly all of them it will be no worse than flu. They will survive it, particularly if they are given two crucial medications as soon as symptoms arise. The first is

5th June 2020

Catholic Voice

a daily gel tablet containing 25 micrograms of Vitamin D. In these northern climes, we are likely to be deficient in Vitamin D, particularly if we have darker skins. The chance of avoiding serious effects from respiratory viruses such as the Chinese virus is reduced by 70% if those who are deficient in Vitamin D take a daily prophylactic dose.

The second medication to take straight away if you become infected is an anticoagulant to stop the blood-clotting that the virus causes. You will need a prescription for that one.

For the under-60s, then, lockdowns can and should end at once, since the risk to them is negligible.

Those over 60, particularly if they are obese or diabetic, or if they have high blood pressure or heart problems, should continue to isolate themselves as best they can for the time being. Eventually, if the lockdowns are ended for the under-60s, as the science shows they should be, enough of the under-60s will have contracted the infection (a good proportion of them without even realising they ever had it) to build up the population-wide immunity which will cause the pandemic to fizzle out.

At that point, which can be established by mass testing, the old and infirm can safely be let loose as well.

What, then, should the churches do?

For they are known to be among the worst spreaders of infection. In South Korea, the outbreak nearly became uncontrollable when a single infected person attended a church with a large congregation and infected hundreds of them.

The Bishops’ plan should take a step-by-step approach. The first step is to allow all priests and people who are not suffering from the known co-morbidities to go to church at once. There is no longer any need or excuse for delay.

However, some precautions should be taken. Everyone arriving at the church should bring his or her own hand-towel, and, on arrival, should wash his or her hands and gloves with soap and water laced with disinfectant in bowls provided by the church.

In churches with smaller congregations, social distancing should be observed. It is a simple matter to mark off closed pews and seats with tape. If possible, people should be at least 16 feet (5 metres) from one another.

In churches with larger congregations, a simple registration system can be used to ensure that no more than the maximum who can be safely accommodated attend each Mass.

Before each Mass, the whole church should be sprayed with aerosolized or “fogged” HOCL, a mild acid that is harmless to humans but deadly to viruses. With the right equipment, spraying is not a lengthy process, but it makes an enormous difference.

It would be prudent to administer Holy Communion under the species of bread alone for the time being. Choirs should not sing for the time being, since singing, like coughing, projects the virus over a distance of up to 4 metres.

Now, by this stage you may be thinking that all this is a lot of faff, and it’s too much like hard work. Well, remember the early Christians, who had to walk very

CHURCH MATTERS 21 long distances to get to Mass at all, and often had to hide in catacombs for fear of being executed if they were caught. For the sake of meeting and praising and receiving into our souls the Lord of Life Himself, a little inconvenience is a very small price to pay for an infinitely wonderful reward.

For the time being it will be necessary for the most vulnerable not to attend Mass in person. Nor can priest or deacons visit them to bring them the Blessed Sacrament, for that could too easily bring infection into their homes.

For them, and for all who cannot get to Mass in these dark times but fervently wish they could, much of the grace of this most central of sacraments can be attained by an earnest desire to receive the Lord of Life into their souls.

For Heaven is merciful, and the bureaucratic constraints that have outlived their usefulness here but are still inflicted upon us do not confine or circumscribe the mercy of God.

22 SPIRITUAL LIFE

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS Sr Anne Marie Walsh S.O.L.T.

Our life in time is pretty simple.

We live in the midst of a war that God in His mercy doesn’t let us see completely. Were we to see some of what goes on in the invisible realms we would probably die of fright. Yet, the battle between good and evil is a part of our daily existence.

“For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armour of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day, having done everything, to hold your ground.” Eph 6: 12-13 In the wake of the current crisis in the Church, there are two questions each of us must ask.

1. How does God want me to respond to this?

2. How does the devil want me to respond to this?

We can quickly and correctly surmise that the devil wants us to become destructively enraged, fall into discouragement, rash judgment, accusation, despair, and justify ourselves into leaving the Church altogether. But, we can also look to Jesus to see how He responded.

Jesus chose 12 Apostles, men specially selected by Him for the specific work of establishing the Church, which He promised us would endure even though all hell come up against it. One of those men betrayed Jesus for a lousy sum of silver. Jesus called him friend even then, in one last effort to reclaim him.

Another, the future head of the infant Church, denied him three times. Jesus gave him the opportunity to recant by professing his love three times.

All the rest abandoned Him in his greatest need, out of fear.

One only returned to the Cross because Our Lady gave him the courage to accompany her there.

Jesus appeared to them all after rising from the dead, spoke peace to them, and after banishing their fear, prepared them to become mighty instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit.

At the same time, Jesus does not go lightly on those who violate the innocence of children or remain obstinate in grave sin. “Better for them had they never been born.”

But it doesn’t leave us off the hook either.

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

(Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago)

St Michael The Archangel - Castel Sant’Angelo - Rome

The weapons of warfare against the evil in the heart of man have been laid out for us by Jesus in the Gospel: prayer, fasting (which the Fathers of the Church considered a form of exorcism), vigilance,

5th June 2020

Catholic Voice

self-denial and humility, humility, humility. Mary sends the devils fleeing in terror precisely for this reason. Her profound humility drew heaven to earth! It is the greatest power against the ugly pride that infects us all, a pride that is the gateway to so many other sins.

St. Ignatius picks up these themes in his classic meditation on The Two Standards. We are either in one camp or the other, the Lord’s or Satan’s. It is necessary for us to know what ground we stand on. Because in the end, holiness, communion with Christ, is the only thing that transforms the human heart and changes the world.

The devil told St. John Vianney, “If there were three such priests as you, my kingdom would be ruined.”

That holiness, which should be the aspiration of every priest, is, at the same time, required of each of us as well. Our holiness as a people who come to live with and in and through Christ will then be the driving force behind the victories of the Kingdom of Light over the Kingdom of darkness in this present age. And that holiness will mark the glory of the world that is to come.

Questions for Reflection 1. Vatican II noted that modern man lives in a kind of duplicity, often identifying himself as Christian, but living as though he doesn’t believe. Where do you find yourself? Which camp are you in?

Or do you try to stay on the fence?

SPIRITUAL LIFE 23 2. How does pride manifest itself in your life?

3. Do you recognise the particular strategies the devil uses on you?

Are you aware of the weaknesses you have that make you vulnerable to his attacks?

4. Can you say holiness is the genuine aspiration of your life?

5. What does holiness mean to you?

Sr Anne Marie Walsh is an American sister in the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. This article is taken from her recent publication Gathering the Light: Treasures Out of the Darkness. It is published by www. goodbooksmedia.com and is available also on Book Depository.

24 CARDINAL SARAH

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

Cardinal Sarah: Corona crisis has laid bare ‘insidious disease’ of Church thinking she’s a ‘worldly institution’ Jeanne Smits

“The Church has messages for this world, but only because she has the keys to the other world.”

With these words, Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, underscored the Church’s mistaken bid to appear necessary to the world on the world’s terms.

According to Cardinal Sarah (read his full remarks below), the COVID-19 crisis has revealed both the world’s incapacity to come to terms with the scandal of death and the Church’s failure to bring to it the only possible answer and consolation that it alone can provide: the promise of eternal life.

His take on the coronavirus epidemic is that the Church now has the chance and the opportunity to return to “essentials” and to bring a world that has counted too much on the “security” of technology to understand that only she can provide answers to its new-found doubts.

The COVID-19 epidemic, wrote Sarah, “laid bare an insidious disease that was eating away at the Church: she thought that she was ‘of this world.’”

Here below is a translation of Cardinal Sarah’s op-ed for Figaro Vox, the internet platform of French daily Le Figaro.

Does the Church still have a place in times of epidemic in the 21st century? In contrast with past centuries, the bulk of medical care is now provided by the state and healthcare personnel. Modernity

has its secularised heroes in white coats, and they are admirable. It no longer needs the charitable battalions of Christians to care for the sick and bury the dead. Has the Church become useless to society?

Covid-19 is bringing Christians back to the essentials. Indeed, the Church has since long entered into a distorted relationship with the world. Confronted with a society that pretended not to need them, Christians, through pedagogy, did their best to demonstrate that they could be useful to it. The Church has shown herself to be an educator, the mother of the poor, an “expert in humanity” as Paul VI put it. And rightly so. But little by little, Christians have come to forget the reason for this expertise.

They ended up forgetting that if the Church can help man to be more human, it is ultimately because she has received from God the words of eternal life.

The Church has committed herself to the struggles for a better world.

She has been right to support ecology, peace, dialogue, solidarity, and the equitable distribution of wealth. All these struggles are just.

But they could make us forget the words of Jesus: “My kingdom is not of this world.” The Church has messages for this world, but only because she has the keys to the other world. Christians have sometimes thought of the Church as a help given by God to humanity to improve its life here on earth. And they did not lack reasons, so true is it that faith in eternal life sheds light on the proper way to live in this century.

Dying of Despair and Loneliness Covid-19 laid bare an insidious disease that was eating away at the Church: she thought that she was “of this world.” She wanted to feel legitimate in her own eyes and according to her own criteria.

But a radically new reality has

5th June 2020

Catholic Voice

appeared. Triumphant modernity has collapsed in the face of death.

This virus revealed that, despite its assurances and security, this earthly world was still paralyzed by the fear of death. The world can solve health crises. It will certainly solve the economic crisis. But it will never solve the enigma of death.

Faith alone has the answer.

Let us illustrate this very concretely.

In France, as in Italy, the issue of nursing homes for the elderly, the so-called “EHPADs,” has been a crucial point. Why is that so?

Because it directly raised the question of death. Should elderly residents be confined to their rooms at the risk of dying of despair and loneliness? Should they stay in contact with their families, risking death from the virus? We did not know how to answer.

The State, trapped in a secularism that chooses on principle to ignore hope and send cults back to the private domain, was condemned to silence. For the State, the only solution was to flee physical death at all costs, even if it meant condemning moral death. The answer could only be a response of faith: to accompany the elderly towards a probable death, in dignity and above all the hope of eternal life.

The epidemic has hit Western societies at their most vulnerable point. They had been organized to deny death, to hide it, to ignore it.

It came in through the front door!

Who has not seen those giant mortuaries in Bergamo or Madrid?

These are the images of a society that not long ago was promising an immortal, augmented man.

Forgetting Fear The promises of technology make it possible to forget fear for a moment, but in the end they prove to be illusory when death strikes. Even philosophy merely restores some dignity to human reason when it is overwhelmed by the absurdity of death. But it is powerless to console hearts and give meaning to what seems to be definitively deprived of meaning.

In the face of death, there is no human response that can hold. Only the hope of eternal life can surpass the scandal of death. But who is the man who will dare to preach hope?

It takes the revealed word of God to dare to believe in a life without end. It takes a word of faith to dare to hope for oneself and one’s family. The Catholic Church is therefore called back to its primary responsibility. The world expects of her a word of faith that will enable it to overcome the trauma of this face-to-face encounter with death that it has just experienced. Without a clear word of faith and hope, the world can sink into morbid guilt or helpless rage at the absurdity of its condition. Only the Church can enable it to give meaning to the

CARDINAL SARAH 25 deaths of loved ones, who died in solitude and were buried in haste.

But if that is so, the Church must change. She must stop being afraid of causing shock and of going against the tide. She must give up thinking of herself as a worldly institution. She must return to her only “raison d’être”: faith. The Church is there to announce that Jesus conquered death through His resurrection. This is at the heart of her message: “And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith … and we are the most wretched of all men” (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).

All the rest is only a consequence of this.

Our societies will come out of this crisis weakened. They will need psychologists to overcome the trauma of not being able to accompany the elderly and the dying to their tombs, but even more, they will need priests to teach them to pray and to hope.

The crisis reveals that our societies, without knowing it, are suffering deeply from a spiritual evil: they do not know how to give meaning to suffering, finitude and death.

26 DEVOTIONS

Catholic Voice

5th June 2020

THE FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS DEVOTION On 13th July 1917, Our Lady appeared to the three children of Fatima for the third time. It was during this apparition that the children were entrusted with secrets and were shown a vision of Hell. After the vision of Hell, which terrified the children, Our Lady told them: “You have seen Hell - where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wills to establish throughout the world the devotion to My Immaculate Heart.

“If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end.

“But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XI...

“To forestall this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.”

On Thursday December 10th, 1925, Our Lady appeared to Sr. Lucia with the child Jesus.

The Child Jesus spoke first to Lucia: “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

Then Our Lady said to Lucia:

“My daughter, look at My Heart encircled with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to Confession and receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep Me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to Me.”

Blasphemies against Immaculate Conception.

the

Blasphemies against Perpetual Virginity.

Her

On the night of May 29th - 30th.

Our Lord revealed to Sr Lucia the reason for the First Saturday devotion.

“Here, My daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little act of reparation... and in consideration of it, to move My mercy to pardon souls who have had the misfortune of offending Her. As for you, always seek by your prayers and sacrifices to move My mercy to pity for these poor souls.”

“My daughter, the reason [for the Five First Saturdays] is simple.

There are five types of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, refusing at the same time to recognize Her as the Mother of men.

The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children indifference or scorn, or even hatred of the Immaculate Mother.

The offenses of those who outrage Her directly in Her holy images.

5th June 2020

Catholic Voice

FATIMA 27

Fatima: Heaven’s Answer to a World in Crisis

Excerpts from Cardinal Raymond Burke - Rome Life Forum 2020 From the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, there has been a failure on the part of the Church as one body to announce clearly the Gospel and to insist on the exercise of her mission, in accord with the Gospel, also in times of international crisis.

It is tragic to hear reports of faithful who ask a priest to hear their confession and receive the response that the priests are forbidden to hear confessions, or who ask for Holy Communion and are told that the priests are forbidden to distribute Holy Communion outside of the Holy Mass. It is particularly tragic to hear the accounts of the faithful dying without the help of their priest or without any member of their family or friends present to assist them, and the accounts of lifelong faithful Catholics being buried without any Funeral Rites whatsoever.

In some cases, these tragic circumstances have been dictated by the State and in some cases they have been dictated by the Church, beyond the demands of the regulations of the State or in conformity with regulations of the State, which are in violation of religious freedom.

The situation has rightly sustained an intense discussion on the relationship of the Church and the State. In the absence of due respect for the Church and for the religious freedom of her members, the State assumes the authority of God Himself, dictating to the Church regarding the most sacred realities like the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrament of Penance.

If we had any doubt regarding the loss of such respect, it was dispelled by incidents in which civil authorities attempted to prevent a priest offering the Holy Mass from completing the sacred action.

From the beginning, there has been a failure to make clear that among all of the necessities of life the

principal necessity is communion with God. Yes, we need what is required for our nourishment, health and hygiene, but none of these essential needs can substitute for our most fundamental need: to know, love and serve God. As I was taught long ago, among the first lessons in the Catechism, God made man to know, love and serve Him in this life and thereby to obtain life everlasting with Him in Heaven...

It has also been suggested, even by pastors of the Church, that the present crisis should lead us to consider again whether Sunday Mass is essential to the Christian life or whether Funeral Rites are essential to the practice of our faith.

Yes, it is true that the experience of the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis has marked significantly our lives, but it must not assume the direction of our lives. Our Lord Jesus Christ remains the King of Heaven and of Earth. We remain created in God’s image and likeness, with the gifts of faith and reason. We remain sons and daughters of God, adopted in God the Son which we can only be by the all-wondrous work of His Redemptive Incarnation.

We live in God, we receive God’s life into our hearts and souls from the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, in order to do what is right and just and good for ourselves and for our world. We must return to a life lived in communion with God, using right reason and putting into practice the truths of our Catholic faith.

The Sunday Mass obligation, for instance, participates in natural and divine law, the Third Commandment of the Decalogue, which we are obliged to observe, unless, for reasons beyond our control, we are not able to do so.

During the present crisis, it has been said that Bishops dispense the faithful from the Sunday Mass obligation, but no human has the power to dispense from divine law.

If it has been impossible, during the crisis, for the faithful to assist at Holy Mass, then the obligation did not bind them, but the obligation remained...

But the Holy Mass is not some human representation. It is Christ Himself Who descends to the altars of our churches and chapels to make sacramentally present the saving fruit of His Passion, Death,

28 FATIMA

Catholic Voice

Resurrection and Ascension. What on earth could be preferable to the presence of Christ in our midst in the sacramental action!

Some pastors have even rebuked the faithful who pleaded for the Sacraments, accusing them of wanting, in selfishness, to risk serious harm to the health of others.

No one denies the need to take necessary sanitary precautions, but the desire of the Sacraments, especially of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, is at the heart of our faith.

Our relationship with God requires that we leave the confinement of our homes and what we may imagine to be a perfectly protected environment, in order that He, through His only-begotten Son, can speak to our hearts and nourish them with divine grace.

In this regard, even as it is perfectly normal that individuals leave the confinement of their homes to purchase, for instance, food and medicine, it is even more perfectly normal that persons of faith leave the confinement of their homes to pray and to receive the Sacraments.

Here, it must be noted that Our Lord has entrusted the sacred realities of His presence with us to the care of our pastors. It is they who have received the grace to safeguard those realities and to provide access to them for the faithful...

5th June 2020

not give you better counsel than the Virgin Mother of God gave to us, through the three shepherd children at Cova da Iria: Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and the Servant of God Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart.

The appearances of Our Lady of Fatima came at a time when the world was in a terrifying crisis, a crisis which threatened its very future, a crisis which, in many and frightening ways, continues, in our day, to threaten the future of man and of the world. It is a crisis which has also infected the life of the Church, not, of course, touching the objective reality of Christ’s life in the Church for our salvation but, rather, obscuring and manipulating the Church from within for purposes alien to her nature and thus poisonous for souls.

The immediate manifestation of the crisis was the rise of atheistic materialism or communism in Russia and its spread throughout the world. Atheistic materialism or communism is evil at its root, for it is the abandonment of faith in God and in His plan for our eternal salvation, as He, from the Creation, has written it into nature, and, above all, has inscribed it upon the human heart. It is the abandonment of the Mystery of Faith, an indifference, disregard or even hostility to the

supreme reality of the Redemptive Incarnation of God the Son by which He has won for man eternal salvation, the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, of divine grace, so that man can live in communion with God, in accord with His plan for His creation. Christ has won for man the gift of His own life, so that man may attain eternal life, while preparing the world for its transformation, in accord with God’s plan, for the inauguration of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” Christ is the Eternal Lamb of God, at whose Wedding Feast we are all called to have a place...

God’s messenger to the shepherd children was already indicating the way in which the Mother of God would lead the world to deal with the grave crisis of atheistic materialism or communism and its inherent apostasy: the way of faith and prayer, and of penance and reparation...

It is clear that apostasy, either explicit or implicit, leads hearts away from the Immaculate Heart of Mary and, thus, from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the only font of our salvation. In that regard, as the Message of Fatima makes clear, the pastors of the Church, who in some way cooperate with apostasy, also by their silence, bear a very heavy burden of responsibility.

For instance, to suggest that a priest distribute Holy Communion while wearing a mask and plastic gloves, and sanitize his hands at various times after he has consecrated the Sacred Host may, from a medical perspective be the most sanitary practice, but it does not respect the truth that it is Christ Who is giving Himself to us in the Sacred Host...

Our Lord sent His Virgin Mother to Cova da Iria near Fatima in Portugal in 1917, for the precise mission of calling us back to life in Him, to a strong Catholic identity, in the face of the rise and spread of atheistic materialism or communism. In speaking with you today about the critical situation in which we find ourselves, I could

Sacred Heart Statue - Fatima

5th June 2020 Catholic Voice CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA 29 The most respected studies of the apparitions of Our Lady of persecutions of the Church. The Republic of China, we recognize Fatima hold that the third part of good will be martyred, the Holy that the great evil of communism the Message or Secret of Fatima Father will have much to suffer, must be healed at its roots through has to do with the diabolical forces various nations will be annihilated. the consecration of Russia, as Our unleashed upon the world in our In the end my Immaculate Heart Lady has directed. Recognizing time and entering into the very life will triumph. The Holy Father will the necessity of a total conversion of the Church, which lead souls consecrate Russia to me, and she from atheistic materialism and away from the truth of the faith and, will be converted, and a period of communism to Christ, the call of therefore, from the Divine Love peace will be granted to the world. Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate flowing from the glorious pierced In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith Russia to her Immaculate Heart, in will always be preserved, etc. accord with her explicit instruction, Heart of Jesus. remains urgent.

Our Lady indicates the spiritual Our Lady of Fatima makes it clear that only the Faith, which places remedy of the deplorable situation The Communion of Reparation man in the relationship of unity in which the world and the Church on the First Saturdays represents of heart with the Sacred Heart of find themselves. She also foretold the heart of a coherent life lived in Jesus, through the mediation of the terrible physical chastisements Christ, a union of hearts, one with her Immaculate Heart, can save which would result from the failure the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with man from the material and spiritual to consecrate the agent of the spread the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We have chastisements which rebellion of atheistic communism to the the assurance of Our Lady that her against God necessarily brings Sacred Heart of Jesus through her Immaculate Heart will triumph, upon its perpetrators and upon Immaculate Heart and to undertake that the truth and love of her Divine the whole of both society and the the regular practice of reparation Son will triumph. We are called to Church. She, therefore, urges daily for so many offenses committed be agents of her triumph by our conversion of life for the salvation against the immeasurable and obedience to her maternal counsel. of souls and the salvation of the unceasing love of God manifested .. so perfectly in the glorious pierced world.

Heart of Jesus.

Let us pray daily for the conversion of Russia, and let us take up the way Referring to the punishments necessarily connected with the The consecration of Russia to the of prayer, penance and reparation, grave sins of the time, Our Lady, Immaculate Heart of Mary is more which Our Lady of Fatima teaches during her apparition on July needed today than ever. When we us.

13, 1917, announced the peace witness how the evil of atheistic which God wants to give to souls materialism, which has its roots (Cardinal Burke’s full talk is and to the world. She teaches us in Russia, directs in a radical way available on Life Site News website) that the peace of God will come the government of the People’s to the world through two means: the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the practice of the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturday of the month. Our Lady spoke these words to the shepherd children:

To prevent this [the punishment of the world “for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father”], I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and

The Russian Orthodox Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius - Russia

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