Catholic Voice 22nd July 2020 Issue 294

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Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat

3 July - 16 July 2020

Issue 294

St Aloysius

Hope:

The Cassock

Our Lady of Knock

& The Lily

Now on DVD

- page 2

- page 4

The Money Changers Have Returned - Page 12

Archbishop Vigano & Donald Trump - page 20

The Secret of the Rosary - page 16

We Must Protect The Unborn - page 22

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

2 SAINTS

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

The Saints Attributes Saint Aloysius Gonzaga: The Cassock and the Lily Canon Norman I.C.K.S.P. Saint Aloysius was born of noble parents on the 9th March 1568, in northern Italy, between Brescia and Mantua, in what at the time was the Duchy of Mantua. At the age of twelve, he began receiving spiritual direction from Cardinal and future Saint Charles Borromeo. His father planned for Aloysius to enter the military profession, as was the custom for sons of aristocrats. His military training started when he was very young, but he was also educated in languages and the arts.

At age five, he was sent to a military camp.

afterwards beginning his theological studies. The saint suffered health problems all throughout his time in religious life. In addition to kidney disease, he also suffered from a skin disease, chronic headaches and insomnia. All of these trials he bore in patience and resignation.

In his fourth year of theology, a famine and pestilence broke out in Italy. Though possessed of a rather weak constitution, he immediately volunteered for work in caring for the sick. Though he devoted himself wholeheartedly to his tasks, he revealed to his spiritual director, Saint Robert Bellarmine,

His father enjoyed seeing the boy marching around the camp before a platoon of troops, however his mother and his tutor were less impressed with the vocabulary he gained from the experience of soldierly life.

In 1581 he travelled to Spain with his father and brother; it was during this trip that he made the resolution of becoming a Jesuit priest. In 1584 he returned to his native Italy. His desire to become a Jesuit missionary persisted, and even though his father’s consent to his decision came with difficulty, after many requests and much persuading Aloysius finally succeeded in obtaining it.

He renounced his heritage in his brother’s favour and pursued the religious vocation to which he felt so strongly called. He began his novitiate in the Jesuit Order in 1585 and accomplished brilliant studies in both philosophy and theology.

He made his vows with the Jesuits on the 25th November 1587,

The Vocation of St Aloysius - Guercino (1591 - 1666)

3rd July 2020 Catholic Voice

SAINTS 3

that he was physically revolted by the ghastly sights and smells of the work of caring for plague victims.

He had to struggle mightily to overcome his disgust. On the 3rd March, he came down with the plague himself, and died at the age of twenty-three on the 21st June 1591. He was canonised by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.

Saint Aloysius is invoked as a patron saint of Catholic youth and students, Jesuit scholastics, the blind and the sick. If one virtue stands out in his life more than any other, it is that of his angelic purity, a purity which he defended amidst the temptations of court life in Renaissance Italy.

His life is therefore a wonderful example for the young in particular, especially in our era, in which the young are constantly pushed towards immodesty and unchaste behaviour by many elements of society and advertising. It should also be noted that this saint is a good heavenly patron for the month of June, the month of the Sacred Heart. In the work ‘The Devotion to the Sacred Heart’, Fr. John Croiset references the great devotion of Aloysius to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord.

Images of Saint Aloysius often show him in a cassock and surplice, eyes fixed on a crucifix, owing to his custom of contemplating the dying Lord.

He is often depicted with the lily flower; a reference to his inimitable purity of life. Another attribute often found with this saint is a crown of flowers in the hands of a descending angel, a reference to his death as a victim of the plague.

For his heroic work with victims of this disease, which led to

his own death, he is sometimes portrayed alongside Saints Roch and Sebastian, these two being frequently invoked in times of pandemics.

The remains of the saint are kept in the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, in an exquisite urn of lapis lazuli with a wreath of silver festoons.

His head was later taken to the basilica of his namesake at his native castle in northern Italy. Many churches and schools have been named for this saint throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in Ireland.

The feast day of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga is traditionally kept on the 21st June, the date of his death.

Prayer: “O Saint Aloysius, adorned with angelical manners, although I am thy unworthy servant, I recommend to thee in an especial manner the chastity of my soul and body; I conjure thee, by thy angelical purity, to commend me to Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb, and to His most holy Mother, the

Virgin of virgins. Preserve me from every grievous sin; never suffer me to sully my soul with any impurity; whenever thou seest me in temptation or danger of sin, ward off from me every impure thought and affection, and awakening in me the remembrance of eternity and of Jesus crucified, imprint deeply in my heart the sentiment of the fear of God. Inflame me with divine love, in order that by imitating thee on earth, I may merit to enjoy God with thee in heaven. Amen.”

4 OUR LADY OF KNOCK

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

“I realised Hope was a story that needed to be told” Anne O’Hare

A County Down film director has attracted international acclaim with his latest film about Knock shrine.

The dramatised documentary, ‘Hope: Our Lady of Knock’ was produced for the global television network EWTN by Campbell Miller.

The film which was named best ‘Special or Documentary’ in this year’s Gabriel Awards, examines how a Co Mayo village has become a powerful place of pilgrimage, visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year following a silent apparition at the gable wall of the parish church in August 1879.

Campbell, who is the first film director in Ireland to have won the much coveted award which is presented annually by the Catholic Press Association and honours both secular and religious film, television, radio and digital media outlets for outstanding artistic achievement within the industry.

The 43 year-old says he is honoured to have received the award which blends commentary

with reconstructions of life in 19th century Ireland.

“I realised Hope was a story that needed to be told not just for the devout but for any pilgrim who wants to search for God”, said Campbell.

“I visited Knock and spoke with the current parish priest, Fr Gibbons, and a relative of one of the witnesses, Noleen Bryne, to get a factual account of the circumstances the Irish people were faced with at the time so the story could be told, not just through a religious perspective, but from a historical viewpoint as well.

Campbell painted a picture of great despair which had engulfed the Irish people at the time.

“Ireland was in the grip of a second famine in the months before the apparition happened. Many people of the village were old enough to recall the horror of the Great Famine, which happened over thirty years before”, he explained.

“Despair was widespread as people watched their potato crops erode.

They were fighting to reclaim ownership of their land, immigration was rife, as was disease.

“It later turned out, the second famine wasn’t as bad the one that went before. A good portion of the film dramatises all of this.”

Despite despair, the villagers of Knock were about to witness the only Eucharistic apparition the world has ever seen, when Jesus appeared in the form of a lamb on top of an altar encircled by angels, accompanied by the Blessed Virgin, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist.

Campbell, who gave up his role as teacher of Media Studies at South

Eastern Regional College’s, over four years ago, to pursue a career making religious films for the global network, EWTN, picks up the story.

“The film looks at why St Joseph is looking toward Mary during the apparition. Why a bible, opened at the chapter of Revelations, rests in St John’s left hand, while he holds up three fingers with his right hand.

And why the Virgin Mother guides the visionaries eyes toward the altar.”

Most of the scenes were shot on a small budget around the townland of Ballymagreehan, outside Castlewellan, Co Down.

He said: “We had a relatively small budget. All of the amazing cast and crew were Irish. We shot the famine scene just off the Bann Road and we used an old cottage built on the Altnadue Road for the cottage scene.

“We took over a barn in the small village called Clough, to shoot the apparition scene. We recreated the gable wall of the chapel by building a stone wall inside it.

“It was mostly all shot in Co Down.

We even used a real lamb, which we filmed on a farm in Castlewellan using technology called a green screen and superimposing it onto actual footage in the film.”

Campbell was unaware while he was making the film that within a few months the the country would again find itself in the grip of another catastrophe.

Cambell continued: “We obviously didn’t know the release of Hope would coincide with the Covid19 Pandemic, but there are parallels between the two eras that can be drawn.

3rd July 2020 Catholic Voice

Hope Our Lady Of Knock

“With the likelihood of a financial downturn in the wake of the pandemic, people are fearful for their future, everything looks grim.

“It is similar now, to the prevailing atmosphere at the time of the apparition. There is poverty, disease and a sense of despair. Our Lady’s appearance at Knock gave people a sense of Hope. Ireland needs to hear that message again at a time when so many feel despondent, depressed and fearful.”

The film features contributions from relatives of the original witnesses, as well as Fr Richard Gibbons, Archbishop Eamon Martin and Knock historian, Tom Neary. It also includes an interview with Marion Carroll, whose healing from serious illness at Knock while on pilgrimage has been officially recognised by the Catholic Church.

The film, which was due to be rolled out in over 100 cinemas across Ireland in May, unfortunately had to be suspended due the Coronavirus pandemic.

Despite this says Campbell, modern film has many platforms in order to reach audiences. Earlier in 2020 Campbell personally presented Pope Francis with a copy of the film.

Hope is available to order on DVD from the EWTN website.

OUR LADY OF KNOCK 5

6 LITURGY & EUCHARIST

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES Mary Kearns

We are now accustomed to watching on-line liturgical celebrations and taking part to a greater or lesser degree.

Assisting at Sunday Mass in person as we know, is mandatory for Catholics and since at the moment this is not permitted we are doing the best we can, courtesy of the internet. Other Christian communities are not obliged to be present at services on Sundays but this is often the choice of many and we respect their desire to gather together to worship the Lord. So we should not be surprised to discover that Protestant services are also being carried out via the web cam.

throughout the church with several dogs in hot pursuit.

Luckily the rabbit was reclaimed by its owner and a tragic event was averted.

One lady told an amusing story featuring her female vicar who, regarding the annual Pets Service, insisted that all small animals should be in cages. This might seem rather unnecessary given the fact that the service was being conducted by Zoom in a virtual meeting room. However the reverend lady felt it was important to have the service as “real” as possible. She reminded her congregation of what had occurred at Pets Service the previous year. One little girl had held up her rabbit to be blessed but it managed to escape and scamper

There is always someone to pose the question “Would Jesus mind?” To this query there is only one possible answer. We do not know. The Apostle John, in his Gospel tells us that if everything Jesus said and did had been written down, the world would not be big enough to contain all the books. We conclude therefore that there are many things we do not know about Our Blessed Lord. Nonetheless we are not left in the dark. In relation to liturgical celebrations we do know what the Lord desires. We know this because before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave authority to the Church he had established to make laws and to implement them in his name. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:19)

We are pleased to have received many positive comments about the new magazine size of CatholicVoice.

This has been introduced to enable us to continue publishing during the current crisis.

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Stories like this one can serve to highlight how a Catholic church is entirely different and distinct from any other ecclesial community. We might have a blessing of animals, especially farm animals, for instance during a mission week. This service would not however be carried out in the actual church but in the churchyard or car-park.

In liturgical matters the positive affirmative always applies. This is exactly the opposite of declaring that if something is not specifically banned it is therefore permitted. An easy example is that there is no law that prohibits taking the Blessed Sacrament outside in the rain. Does that mean that since it is not forbidden, it is therefore allowed? Of course not. The reason is that everything concerning sacred liturgy is prescribed, written in the liturgical books and documents.

The difficulty is that sometimes those who have responsibility for liturgical matters are unaware of the regulations, and the reason for these being to prevent abuse of the most holy sacrament.

The blessing of animals is not profane in itself. However it would be profane if carried out in a liturgical context in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The most significant way a Catholic church differs from every other building is that Jesus Christ is present there, reserved in the tabernacle.

Belief in the Real Presence cannot be overstated or affirmed too frequently.

In the past it was not required that Catholics be so familiar with Church teaching on the Real Presence as to be able to quote or at least refer to the specific

3rd July 2020

LITURGY & EUCHARIST 7

Catholic Voice

doctrine. It was enough just to believe it. But in the present times when this doctrine is openly disputed it is necessary that we are able to cite the references.

In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the Real Presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord.

“The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession.(CCC 1378) It is helpful also to know the origin of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle and the Cathechism explains: “The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.” (CCC 1379) The “Real Presence” is the term referring to Christ’s actual presence in the elements of the bread and the wine that have been transubstantiated. This was not seriously challenged throughout the first centuries of the Church’s life, although there were many other heresies then. In fact it was only after the so-called Reformation that some dissident scholars started to dispute this fundamental truth.

The practice of exposing the Blessed Sacrament in a parish hall

or community centre for purposes of adoration is unfortunate. This may because it is easier to heat a smaller area or to have a more ‘people friendly’ space. Even worse, this might happen so that the church can be used for other purposes such as concerts, where it is deemed suitable because of superior acoustics. The consequence of this is that the Lord is brought into a non-sacred place which does not have the atmosphere of reverence. There are no statues or religious pictures or stations of the cross. Faithful Catholic people do not come into a community centre to pray or light a candle.

Transubstantiation is the teaching that during the Mass, at the consecration, the elements of the

Eucharist, bread and wine, are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus; and that they are no longer bread and wine but only retain their appearance of bread and wine. The Catholic Church has received this tremendous sacrament through the Apostolic Succession.

The most significant difference is that in every Catholic church the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle. That means that Jesus Christ is present in the fullness of his divinity and humanity. That is not the case in other Christian communities.

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearn@gmail.com 087-7794687

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8 LITURGY

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

Dom Prosper Gueranger on the Importance of Lay Participation in the Liturgy (Extracts from The Liturgical Year)

The prayer of the Church is, therefore, the most pleasing to the ear and heart of God, and therefore the most efficacious of all prayers. Happy, then, is he who prays with the Church, and unites his own petitions with those of this bride, who is so dear to her Lord that He gives her all she asks. It is for this reason that our blessed Saviour taught us to say our Father, and not my Father; give us, forgive us, deliver us, and not give me, forgive me, deliver me.

Hence we find that, for upwards of a thousand years, the Church, who prays in her temples seven times in the day and once again during the night, did not pray alone.

The people kept her company, and fed themselves with delight on the manna which is hidden under the words and mysteries of the divine liturgy.

Thus initiated into the sacred cycle of the mysteries of the Christian year, the faithful, attentive to the teachings of the Spirit, came to know the secrets of eternal life; and, without any further preparation, a Christian was not infrequently chosen by the bishops to be a priest, or even a bishop, that he might go and pour out on the people the treasures of wisdom and love, which he had drunk in at the very fountain-head.

For whilst prayer said in union with the Church is the light of the understanding, it is the fire of divine love for the heart. The Christian soul neither needs nor wishes to avoid the company of the Church, when she would converse with God, and praise His greatness and His mercy. She knows that the company of the bride of Christ could not be a distraction to her.

But now for many ages past, Christians have grown too solicitous about earthly things to frequent the holy vigils, and the mystical Hours of the day. Long before the rationalism of the sixteenth century had become the auxiliary of the heresies of that period by curtailing the solemnity of the divine service, the people had ceased to unite themselves exteriorly with the prayer of the Church, except on Sundays and festivals. During the rest of the year, the solemn and imposing grandeur of the liturgy was gone through, and the people took no share in it. Each new generation increased in indifference for that which their forefathers in the faith had loved as their best and strongest food. Social prayer was made to give way to individual devotion. Chanting, which is the natural expression of the prayers and even of the sorrows of the Church, became limited to the solemn feasts. That was the first sad revolution in the Christian world.

Then came the so-called reformation, and at the outset it attacked the very life of Christianity: it would put an end to man’s sacrifice of praise to God. It strewed many countries with the ruins of churches: the clergy, the monks, and virgins consecrated to God were banished or put to death; and in the churches which were spared, the divine Offices were not permitted. In other countries, where the persecution was not so violent, many sanctuaries were devastated and irremediably ruined, so that the life and voice of prayer grew faint.

Faith, too, was weakened; rationalism became fearfully developed; and now our own age seems threatened with what is the result of these evils - the subversion of all social order.

For, when the reformation had abated the violence of its persecution, it had other weapons wherewith to attack the Church. By these several countries which continued to be Catholic were infected with that spirit of pride which is the enemy of prayer. The modern spirit would have it that prayer is not action; as though every good action done by man were not a gift of God: a gift which implies two prayers, one of petition that it may be granted, and another of thanksgiving because it is granted.

But this liturgical prayer would soon become powerless were the faithful not to take a real share in it, or at least not to associate themselves to it in heart. It can heal and save the world, but only on the condition that it be understood. Be wise, then, ye children of the Catholic Church, and obtain that largeness of heart which will make you pray the prayer of your mother. Come, and by your share in it fill up that harmony which is so sweet to the ear of God. For a long time, a remedy has been devised for an evil which was only vaguely felt. The spirit of prayer, and even prayer itself, has been sought for in methods and prayer-books, which contain, it is true, laudable, yea, pious thoughts, but after all only human thoughts.

Such nourishment cannot satisfy the soul, for it does not initiate her into the prayer of the Church. Instead of uniting her with the prayer of the Church, it isolates her. Of this kind are so many of those collections of prayers.

3rd July 2020

Catholic Voice

SECULAR SYNCRETISM 9

Secular Syncretism The poster on the right has been seen in Catholic Churches in Ireland. The incorporation of the message of Jesus Christ within the abortion promoting Irish Department of Health’s Covid-19 warning poster is somewhat incongruous.

So which is it? Do we place our hope in Jesus Christ or do we place our hope in hand sanitiser, social distancing and other Department of Health safety measures?

It is amazing to see how uncritically the Irish government’s restrictions on the celebration of the sacraments have been accepted by Catholic Church authorities in Ireland. We don’t see a similar reciprocation on behalf of the government. They are not promoting the Gospel message within any of their literature. Instead they promote child abuse, aberrant lifestyles, divorce, abortion and contraception.

Our Sacred places of Worship are being profaned by the vulgar incorporation of Department of Health marketing materials into our Catholic Churches and onto our official Catholic Church websites.

Catholic Voice

Update on Publishing During the Current Crisis

Dear Reader We are very grateful for your financial and prayerful generosity during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The donations we have received have allowed us to continue publishing when income to Catholic Voice has been vastly reduced. We also wish to convey our thanks to the promoters and contributors who continually give their time and skills freely to Catholic Voice.

We are heartily encouraged at the very positive response to our new magazine format which we hope to be able to keep as a permanent change.

As the pandemic situation improves we ask that you continue to support us because it will be quite some time before our income is back to previous levels which sustain Catholic Voice as a not for profit organisation.

May God bless you, HOW TO DONATE:

Anthony and Kim Murphy

1. Online - Visit www.catholicvoice.ie - click Donate 2. By Telephone call - 059 8627268 - (00353 59 8627268 outside ROI) to pay by credit/debit card - please leave your phone number and name and we shall return your call.

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10 LETTERS

Catholic Voice

Letters

3rd July 2020 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie

Do Not Co-Operate With Evil Dear Editor, In 1995, Pope John Paul II published his encyclical ‘Evanglium Vitae’ – The Gospel of Life. In it he deals with the ongoing, international threats against human life. He refers to this as a conspiracy against human life; a structure of sin; a war of the powerful against the weak; a culture of death. Today, we face the threat of a Catholic property, the site at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin 4, being transferred to the State.

The plan is to build a facility in which unborn children will be killed deliberately.

Defenceless children, made in the image and likeness of God, will be attacked and destroyed in that new place.

This must not happen.

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 State’s plan is evil and no-one, nobody, is entitled to co-operate with evil. That site must not go to the State.

Their plan is but another extension of the worldwide conspiracy against human life; that structure of sin; that war of the powerful against the weak; that culture of death.

“What partnership has righteousness with iniquity or, what fellowship has light with darkness” (2 Cor 6:14) St Pope John Paul II pray for us.

Your sincerely, Fr Anthony Scully Dublin 7 Hypocrisy and BLM Dear Editor, In the face of the continued protests over the death of George Floyd, the nations raging about BLM is all well and good and while many have lauded this rediscovery of conscience however, it is nothing but hypocrisy in action on a massive scale!

To all those screaming and kneeling on one knee, be it in Belfast, Dublin, or London and New York, I ask the question: Do the lives of the unborn matter?

3rd July 2020

LETTERS 11

Catholic Voice

Letters Their answer will be, of course, a resounding NO! They will defend, quite literally to the death the provision of this dark sacrament with the usual tired and lame mantras of “ my body, my choice” and thus adopt the same attitude of the slave owning society of the antebellum South that viewed slaves as personal objects with little or no connection to humanity.

Until all lives matter especially those who are unborn, the demonstrators will be offering nothing of worth and may go down in history with the providers of slavery, as the deniers of human dignity and rights, once it will finally dawn on the world how much dignity and precious the unborn contribute to society. With the demographics of human depopulation continuing to grow, this truth cannot come soon enough!

Fr John McCallion M.Phil c.c Coalisland Co Tyrone RUSSIA: Consecration or Reconsecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

Dear Editor, The previous issue of the Catholic Voice published a ‘Global Catholic Appeal to Pope Francis & the world’s Bishops’. The appeal calls for them to “specifically consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as she herself requested. The consecration must be specifically for Russia & must mention Russia by name”.

In light of the consecration carried out on 25th March 1984 by Pope John Paul II which Sr. Lucia confirmed was done as requested

by Our Lady, the wording of this request for consecration is

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

perplexing. It appears to question the veracity of Sr. Lucia’s own words: “Yes, it has been done just as Our Lady asked, on 25th March 1984”. (Letter of Sr. Lucia 29Th Aug 1989, A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary).

The appeal organisers rightly recognise that atheistic communism spawned by Russia has brought our world to this moment in history & a global turning back to God is paramount. This letter does not undermine the commendable efforts of all involved in this appeal.

It solely seeks clarification based on charity to Venerable Sr. Lucia’s memory & honour & is not a trivial concern. Sr. Lucia’s cause for beatification is presently ongoing.

practice of the Catholic Church. In the apparition of 13th July 1917 Our Lady told the children “I shall 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 & there will be peace, if not she will spread her errors throughout the world…” (Fatima In Lucia’s Own Words).

Thus we would be grateful for clarification on whether this appeal is based on the belief that the 1984 consecration was invalid, & if so please state the reasons. If it is a call for re-consecration it would help if this was made clear as such a call is urgently needed.

Therefore both the consecration & the Five First Saturdays were requested by Our Lady as criteria for Russia’s conversion. Sadly the Five First Saturdays became overlooked over time. The appeal may help revive this much needed practice of the faithful. It is heartening to know that we all can do something to lessen the evil in our days. By simply obeying Our Lady’s request & faithfully practicing the Five First Saturdays in a spirit of reparation we will be doing what she asked of us in this regard.

TheAppeal also requests establishing the Five First Saturdays as a universal

Mrs Frances Leonard, Loughrea. Co. Galway.

12 CHURCH MATTERS

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

The Money Changers Are Back In The Temple John Lacken Let us pause for a moment to say one Hail Mary for our Irish Bishops as public access for the laity to the life-giving Sacraments of the Catholic Church continues to be restricted.

In my last article, I noted that it had been over eleven weeks since my wife, two of our children who are still living at home, and I, had been able to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I had been speaking to a priest from a small rural parish some weeks previously, and he told me that he allows a few ‘trusted’ parishioners to attend Holy Mass and that if I wanted to visit him with my family we could stay at the parochial house and we would be able to attend Holy Mass. This priest, whose identity and location I must protect in these strange times in which we are living, also celebrates house Masses for those who ask him.

I realised that I needed to get myself and my family to Holy Mass as I noticed an increase in the spiritual attacks and the temptations I was being subjected to. I was normally afforded spiritual protection by attending daily Mass and going to confession weekly and perhaps other aspects of my spiritual armour had not been properly refined and I found myself struggling. There is no greater defence against the devil than Holy Mass, Confession, and the other sacraments of the Catholic Church. In times of oppressive persecution, as Bishop Athanasius Schneider tells us from personal experience, there are other spiritual measures which Catholics should adopt, but these are not a

replacement for the sacraments. In our times, where the persecution of the Catholic Church is being hidden under the guise of a dangerous virus, most of us have not been well prepared to face the unexpected and sudden loss of the Sacraments.

So, I decided that we were going to go to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and that we would go away for five days. It meant that we would have to travel beyond the unjust travel restrictions imposed by our unelected government. I began to wonder what I would say if I was stopped at a Garda checkpoint.

When I told Anthony that I would be away for a few days he said to look upon it as a work assignment and to write about it in Catholic Voice.

Those of us who work for newspapers are classed as ‘special’ people and we can go about our work despite pandemic restrictions. This is probably because the government needs willing accomplices in spreading the fear narrative propaganda and, whilst I am not one of those willing accomplices, I am nevertheless covered under the government’s exemptions for newspaper workers.

It was quite bizarre to think that a Catholic family might be stopped by Gardaí and told to go home simply because we wanted to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is despite our constitution’s preamble which states: “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,…”

How I wish the actions of the men of Ireland and of our unelected government would follow this foundational principle of all Irish law. Instead, this principle is largely ignored.

As we planned our departure, the government was beginning to lift restrictions, but I still began thinking of where Garda checkpoints were most likely to be and of how we could avoid them if possible. Should we avoid the motorways? Should we avoid the larger towns along the way? Should we leave in the early hours of the morning or travel by night?

One of my sons, who also distributes a Catholic newspaper, had recently been travelling around the country so I asked him if he had come across any Garda checkpoints. He said there were none. It is hard to believe that here we are living in modern Ireland, yet behaving as if we are fugitives on the run or engaged in criminal activity simply because we want to go to Holy Mass. We are being persecuted for our belief in the necessity of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, but nobody seems to be overtly attacking the Church or our beliefs.

What we are experiencing is a deceptive and hidden persecution which has prevented Catholics worldwide from being able to adore Jesus Christ truly present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to receive Him as the necessary spiritual sustenance for both body and soul.

In the end, we decided to leave in the morning, not too early, and to

3rd July 2020

Catholic Voice

CHURCH MATTERS 13

entrust our journey to the protection of the Holy Family whilst travelling to our destination by the normal route. It was the first Saturday of the month and, whilst we did see about four Garda cars, there were no checkpoints and we arrived at our destination without incident.

The priest was delighted to see us and organised Holy Mass in the Church that evening with confessions beforehand so we could fulfil the requirements of the First Saturday Devotion of Reparation. I was to have the privilege of serving the Mass. On Sunday we were joined at Holy Mass by a parishioner and on Monday evening we had a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament. In all, we attended Holy Mass for five days, departing for home on Wednesday morning after Holy Mass. It was the first time in twelve weeks that we had the joy of attending Holy Mass.

On the way home we stopped off at another Church and met with another priest. He was glad that the plan to re-open our Churches was finally coming together and that the faithful would at last be able to attend Holy Mass albeit with certain restrictions.

As we started the final leg of our journey, I found myself becoming angry at what I believe to be the senseless deprivation for the faithful of access to the Sacraments for more than twelve weeks. We had just attended Holy Mass for five days, nobody was put at risk, and we had seen that it was possible for faithful priests to continue to minister to their people. Rather than give in to the anger, I decided that it was time to pray the family Rosary and to hand the whole sorry situation of our country over to Our Lady. The Glorious mysteries and the steady rhythm of the decades

brought wonderful peace to my heart and soul.

During our stay, the priest commented on how strange it is to have to say Holy Mass in a locked and usually empty Church from which his parishioners are effectively banned. He must be very careful about letting faithful Catholics attend Holy Mass and about celebrating Holy Mass for Catholic families in their homes, otherwise he could be prevented from doing precisely what he was ordained to do, to offer sacrifice to God on behalf of the people and to administer the sacraments to the flock entrusted to his care. As the Catechism tells us: “In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ Himself who is present to His Church as Head of His Body, Shepherd of His flock, High Priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis” (CCC 1548) Perhaps my views are simplistic or a little naïve, but I cannot imagine Christ locking the faithful out

of His Church because of some disease! When I read the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, I read stories of the sick being brought to Jesus and to the apostles in their hundreds. I read the story of Christ praising the men who removed the slates from their neighbour’s roof in order to bring a sick man into His presence. Today, the sick are told to stay at home, to stay away from Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass just in case they become contaminated by coming into the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.

It is interesting to look back at the Penal times. Wikipedia tells us: “Catholic clergy were expelled from the country and were liable to instant execution when found.

Many recusants had to worship in secret at gathering places (such as Mass rocks) in the countryside.”

Whilst they may not currently be executing our priests, my family just recently had to worship Christ in secret.

Wikipedia also tells us that when the restrictions on the Holy Mass were being lifted “The quid pro quo

14 CHURCH MATTERS to attain these privileges involved swearing an oath of loyalty to William and Mary.”

Is this all that different from our current situation where our Bishops publicly commit to following government health regulations in order to be able to open our Catholic Churches once more to the public?

The department of Health now dictates how the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated, how many will be allowed to attend, and under what conditions!

Other, almost unseen players in this current madness, are the Ecclesiastical Insurance brokers.

On the website www.ecclesiastical. ie under the page ‘Returning to work after lockdown’ they tell those who manage our churches.

“You will have to do everything that is reasonably practicable given the risk presented. There may be a lot to think about initially. You will need to identify workable precautions and make sure these are taken. In nearly all cases, further precautions will be necessary. This will include social distancing, protecting those most vulnerable, maintaining good levels of hygiene and so on.” (www. ecclesiastical.ie)

Catholic Voice conditions for celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

In the recently issued “Framework document for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments” of the Irish Bishops’ conference, the introduction states: “This document is intended to support dioceses and parishes in their own preparations for a return to the public celebration of Mass and the sacraments and may be supplemented at diocesan level.

These guidelines should be read in conjunction with return to work protocols and insurance advice.” (Irish Bishops’ Framework Document - emphases added) It is apparent to this writer, that the institutional Catholic Church in Ireland, is fast becoming the government controlled ‘Irish Patriotic Catholic Association’ similar to the ‘official’ Catholic Church in China, which follows the dictates of a corrupt government.

Is this really how Jesus Christ intended His Catholic Church to operate? Under the guidance of a murderous department of health

3rd July 2020 which sanctions the killing of little children? With terms and conditions dictated by those who seek to make handsome profits from the Catholic community and who treat Catholic worship as a business entity which needs to be indemnified against risk? The risk of the public communal worship of Jesus Christ?

Perhaps, given all that is happening, it would be better, as one young man suggested to me recently, to allow the current institutional management practices of the Catholic Church in Ireland to totally collapse, so that we can begin again and return our focus to the sole mission entrusted by Christ to His Church, the salvation of souls for the Kingdom of God. The current situation has been failing Catholics in Ireland for many years.

Catholic parents are being betrayed by what is allowed to happen in Catholic Schools where children are being indoctrinated in ideologies which are diametrically opposed to Catholic Church teaching.

New forms of institutional, Statesanctioned child abuse are being introduced into Catholic schools.

Insurance businesses are financial investment companies who make large profits for their investor shareholders by calculating risks and indemnifying their customers against those risks. In 2019, it was reported in Dáil Éireann that profits had increased in the insurance industry by more than 1,200% and that three Insurance companies between them had made profits of over €200 million.

Truly, the money changers have reentered the temple, but now, instead of selling oxen and sheep and doves, they sell highly profitable insurance policies which dictate the terms and

Jesus Drives Out The Money Changers - Luca Giordano (1634 - 1705)

3rd July 2020

CHURCH MATTERS 15

Catholic Voice

Children are due to be murdered in Catholic hospitals in Ireland.

People often wonder how ordinary Germans could have allowed the Nazis to come to power in the 1930s. In a 2014 interview, Peter Fritzsche, who translated the letters of ordinary Germans from that time in a book called “Between Two Homelands,” noted that: “What the letters and diaries reveal is the qualified, not always easy, but nonetheless unmistakable desire to be part of the National Socialist movement.” (from www.news. illinois.edu) In Ireland, many ordinary Irish citizens have a strong desire to be part of the new socialist movement now being promoted by our main political parties with slogans of ‘equality’ ‘diversity’ and ‘all are welcome’. They accept child abuse in the name of being progressive and forward thinking, so long as it is disguised as tolerance and is not called child abuse.

The new programme for government, recently published

by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Greens, actively promotes child abuse with hardly any opposition apart from this newspaper and a few other organisations and individuals.

In their programme they state that they want to: “Remove the need for a person aged 16 and 17 years to have two specialist reports before they can apply for legal gender recognition, by providing for self-declaration, with parental consent and by making mediation available on a voluntary basis. These improvements will include the provision of a gender recognition certificate providing proof of change of name, as well as gender.

Make any necessary changes to the law to allow legal name change be part of the gender recognition process.

Commence research to examine arrangements for children under 16.

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Complete the work of the interdepartmental group tasked with examining legal recognition of non-binary people.”

Our bishops, who largely remain silent on the child-damaging LGBT indoctrination which is going on in the Catholic Schools under their patronage, will one day be faced with the consequences of their silence.

Because one day, a woman, who calls herself a man, will seek entry into a Catholic seminary to be ordained as a priest. But then it will be too late. It is already too late.

Faithful Catholics, especially faithful Catholic parents, must resist and publicly oppose all forms of child abuse including those forms now being proposed by our new, soon to be ratified, National Socialist Rainbow Government.

Where will you make your stand?

May God bless you.

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM

the Catholic hierarchy.

On the 8th September 1907, His Holiness Pope Pius X, issued the Encyclical ‘Pascendi Dominici Gregis’ which translates as “Feeding the Lord’s Flock”. Pope Pius X was aware that the Catholic Church had been infiltrated by modernists who were seeking to undermine her doctrines from within.

Father J. B. Lemius, produced this ‘Catechism on Modernism’ in the familiar question and answer format of the time, in order to make the teachings of the Encyclical more accessible to ordinary Catholics and by way of explaining in a clear and concise manner the reasons why the Encyclical was published.

Paperback

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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 THE HOLY ROSARY

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

The Secret of the Rosary The ROSARY is made up of two things: mental prayer and vocal prayer. In the Holy Rosary mental prayer is none other than meditation of the chief mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Vocal prayer consists in saying fifteen decades of the Hail Mary, each decade headed by an Our Father, while at the same time meditating on and contemplating the fifteen principal virtues which Jesus and Mary practiced in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

In the first five decades we must honour the five Joyous Mysteries and meditate on them; in the second five decades the Sorrowful Mysteries and in the third group of five, the Glorious Mysteries.

“Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?”

“Oh, my Lady,” answered Saint Dominic, “you know far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation.”

Then Our Lady replied: “I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.”

So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district he made straight for the Cathedral. At once, unseen Angels rang the bells to gather the people together and Saint Dominic began to preach.

So the Rosary is a blessed blending of mental and vocal prayer by which we honour and learn to imitate the mysteries and the virtues of the life, death, Passion and glory of Jesus and Mary.

Since the Holy Rosary is composed, principally and in substance, of the Prayer of Christ and the Angelic Salutation, that is, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, it was without doubt the first prayer and the first devotion of the faithful and has been in use all through the centuries, from the time of the Apostles and disciples down to the present.

But it was only in the year 1214, however, that Holy Mother Church received the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use today.

At the very beginning of his sermon an appalling storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady exposed in a prominent place they saw her raise her arms to Heaven three times to call down God’s vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God. God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and to make it more widely known.

It was given to the Church by Saint Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a powerful means of converting the Pray The Rosary Every Day Albigensians and other sinners.

Our Lady at Fatima I will tell you the story of how he received it, which is found in the very well-known book De Dignitate Psalterii by Blessed Alan de la Roche.

Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people’s sins was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of Almighty God. At this point Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three Angels, and she said:

At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching.

So fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Holy Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs.

In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.

This miraculous way in which the devotion to the Holy Rosary was established is something of a parallel to the way in which Almighty God gave His law to the world on Mount Sinai and obviously proves its value and importance.

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Catholic Voice

THE HOLY ROSARY 17

Saint Louis de Montfort Inspired by the Holy Ghost, instructed by the Blessed Virgin as well as by his own experience, Saint Dominic preached the Holy Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons, in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low, before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.

The Holy Rosary which he said every day was his preparation for every sermon and his little tryst with Our Lady immediately after preaching.

One day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St. John the Evangelist.

Carthagena, the great scholar, quoting Blessed Alan de la Roche in De Dignitate Psalterii, describes how this took place: “Blessed Alan writes that one day Father Dominic said to him in a vision: ‘My son, it is good to preach; but there is always a danger of looking for praise rather than the salvation of souls. Listen carefully to what happened to me in Paris so that you may be on guard against this kind of mistake: I was to preach in the great church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I was particularly anxious to give a brilliant sermon, not out of pride, but because of the high intellectual stature of the congregation.

‘It was the feast of Saint John the Apostle but all I said about him was that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. Then I addressed the congregation: ‘“My Lords and illustrious Doctors of the University, you are accustomed to hearing learned sermons suited to your aesthetic tastes. Now I do not want to speak to you in the scholarly language of human wisdom but, on the contrary, to show you the Spirit of God and His Greatness.’”

“Then Saint Dominic explained the Angelic Salutation to them, using simple comparisons and examples from everyday life.”

Blessed Alan, according to Carthagena, mentioned several other times when Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to Saint Dominic to urge and inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more in order to wipe out sin and to convert sinners and heretics.

In another passage Carthagena says: “Blessed Alan said Our Lady revealed to him that after she had appeared to Saint Dominic, her Blessed Son appeared to him and said:

‘Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying upon your own wisdom and that, rather than ‘An hour before the time I had to seek the empty praise of men, you preach, I was recollectedly saying are working with great humility for my Rosary - as I always did before the salvation of souls. ‘But many giving a sermon - when I fell into priests want to preach thunderously ecstasy. I saw my beloved friend the against the worst kinds of sin at the very Mother of God coming towards me with outset, failing to realize that before a sick a book in her hand. person is given bitter medicine he needs to be prepared by being put in the right “Dominic,” she said, “your Virgin & Child with Rosary frame of mind to really benefit sermon for today may be very Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618 1682) by good indeed, but no matter how it. good it is I have brought you one that is very much better.”

‘This is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and ‘Of course I was overjoyed, took the book and read especially a every word of it. Just as Our Lady had said, I found love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all exactly the right things to say in my sermon, so I start saying it and would really persevere, God, in His thanked her with all my heart. mercy, could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So I want you to preach ‘When it was time to begin, I saw that the University my Rosary.’” of Paris had turned out in full force as well as a large number of noblemen. They had all seen and heard of the great things that the good Lord had been doing Excerpts from ‘The Secret of the Rosary’ by Saing Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. through me. So I went up into the pulpit.

18 PRO-LIFE CULTURE

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

We SHOULD Impose Our Views Anthony Hofler

Among the most successful opinions which have been circulated in modem times is that Catholics should not ‘impose their views’. Often it is expressed in an aggressive, hostile manner which makes obvious the underlying hatred for the Catholic religion, and sometimes it is disguised as simply a reasonable opinion. The inconsistency in its promoters’ position seems never to be noticed.

They want to impose their opinion that Catholic principles should not be imposed. Their objection is not to imposition, but to Catholicism.

Catholics should understand that it is not mere personal opinions which are under attack, but principles which have been declared by the teaching authority of Christ’s own Church.

This subject arises most often with regard to the governance of society; in a word, law. The law provides a foundation of obligations (mainly restrictions) based on opinions of what is good and what is bad. The difference between a law and an opinion is that the State can impose penalties if a law is broken. To that extent, the law imposes views, and there is nothing automatically wrong in it doing so. If obedience to the law were optional, there would be chaos.

Most people, at least in democracies agree that the law should be obeyed, or do not disagree with that opinion strongly enough to advocate or engage in disobeying the law. Consequently, there is a widespread tendency, in practice if not always in mind, to regard the law as the authoritative guide to morality; in other words, what is legal is okay, and what is illegal is not okay. That criterion becomes increasingly dominant as individuals and societies become more and more detached from other standards of behaviour, most of all from religion.

Catholic Church teaching (for example, in the “Catechism of

the Catholic Church,” paragraphs 1897, 1902, and 1903), recognises the necessity of law, but points out also its proper limits. The Constitution on the Church ‘Lumen Gentium’ declared that “there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God’s dominion” (paragraph 36). Man-made law is not superior to the moral law taught by the Church; nor is an individual citizen’s opinion (CCC paragraph 2039).

There seems, however, a widespread attitude that religion means only engaging in acts of worship and that other matters are exempt from religious principles. The Constitution on the Church in the Modem World ‘Gaudium et Spes’, declared that, “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age” (paragraph 43).

A common symptom of that error is that many people claim complete autonomy with regard to their moral choices, and lawmakers cater for it, “as if every possible outlook on life were of equal value” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Doctrinal Note on the Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” 2002, paragraph 2).

The laity need reminding that it is generally the function of our wellformed consciences “to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city” (‘Gaudium-et Spes,’ paragraph 43). We are under a duty to resist the legalisation of false equality and bad choices.

‘Lumen Gentium’ called on us to remedy, by our combined efforts, the customs and conditions of the world which are an inducement to sin, so that all may be conformed to the norms of justice and may favour the practice of virtue rather than hinder it (paragraph 36). The Church’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity - ‘Apostolicam Actuositatem’ - said that we should

do that by explaining, defending, and properly applying Christian principles to the problems of our era in accordance with the mind of the Church (paragraph 6); properly applying those principles means Catholicising “the· mentality, customs, laws, and structures of the community in which we live” (paragraph 13 ); “Catholics should feel themselves obliged to ... make the weight of their opinion felt in order that...legislation may conform to moral precepts” (paragraph 14).

That means imposing our views.

This duty is especially urgent and necessary with regard to abortion.

Since the first century, the Church has taught that every abortion which is committed either for its own sake or for another purpose is a grave evil, and this teaching remains unchangeable (CCC paragraph 2271). Every innocent human being’s moral right to life must be respected and protected as absolutely inviolable from the moment of conception (paragraph 2270). Consequently, the law must provide appropriate penalties for every deliberate violation of that right (paragraph 2273).

In most countries the law does the opposite. Usually the general public have borne only indirect responsibility for it by electing, and re-electing, the politicians who passed the law, and putting the matter to a public vote directly has been rare, but the effect is the same: views are imposed on society by law.

There are no circumstances which justify murder, and people should ensure that the law forbids it; they are entitled, and morally obliged, to do that.

The long and difficult process of enshrining Catholic principles in the law of the land requires us to stop being embarrassed by imposition, compulsion, and enforcement; the faith’s enemies certainly aren’t.

3rd July 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:

ERRATUM we published an incorrect number in the last issue.

Lumen Fidei Institute - 085-1208779 (correct number) 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 SUPPORTING TRUMP

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

Archbishop Vigano speaks out for President Trump Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

President Trump is having a bad war. Like Boris Johnson on this side of the Atlantic, he failed to understand the danger posed by the Chinese virus, failed to track and trace early enough to contain it, then failed to lock down the country early enough, then saw a record death toll, then failed to realise that the key to unlocking the economy is not to ease off blanket restrictions by little and little, but to end them forthwith.

Instead, all that is needed is to ensure that the comparatively small at-risk segment of the population – the very old and the very sick – keep themselves carefully segregated from the great majority who are young and fit and who, however much they may mingle, will come to no more harm than they would in the annual flu epidemic.

Like Mr Johnson, Mr Trump has also fumbled the response to the death of a junkie pinned under the knee of a policeman. As a result, Communist agitators have been able to put into place a long-planned operation to bring widespread violence to the streets, and the police – greatly to their shame – have passively encouraged the thugs, looters and rioters by not having acted swiftly or decisively enough at the outset.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano - (photo LifeSiteNews) present and former diplomatic representatives do not play any overt or public part in politics.

Why, then, was His Grace justified in breaching the iron convention of political neutrality?

At present, Mr Trump needs all the support he can get. From Rome, he has had an extraordinary letter of endorsement from no less a personage than Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Nuncio to the United States.

He wrote: “For the first time, the United States has in you a President who courageously defends the right to life, who is not ashamed to denounce the persecution of Christians throughout the world, who speaks of Jesus Christ and the right of citizens to freedom of worship. Your participation in the March for Life, and more recently your proclamation of the month of April as National Child Abuse Protection Month, are actions that confirm which side you wish to fight on. And I dare to believe that both of us are on the same side in this battle, albeit with different weapons.”

As a general rule, and with good reason, the Holy See and its

“For this reason, I believe that the attack to which you were subjected

after your visit to the National Shrine of Saint John Paul II is part of the orchestrated media narrative which seeks not to fight racism and bring social order but to aggravate differences: not to bring justice but to legitimise violence and crime; not to serve the truth but to favour one political faction.”

Mr Trump, for all his faults, has been more willing to speak up for causes in which every sincere Catholic believes than just about any other world leader. It is for that reason that it is permissible for a senior churchman to speak out for him.

Among the many increasingly stark differences between the now-Marxist “Democrats” and the Republicans in the United States is that the former are now viscerally and near-unanimously opposed to the moral and social teaching of the Catholic Church on questions such as abortion; scarcely any of

3rd July 2020

SUPPORTING TRUMP 21

Catholic Voice

them have anything to say about the persecution of Christians worldwide; and none has spoken of the need to reopen the churches.

Mr Trump, however, has risked – and has suffered – the opprobrium of the overwhelmingly “Democrat” Marxstream media because he has had the courage to speak up for the Church’s eternal teachings on all these questions.

To this extent, the Archbishop was entitled to express his support for Mr Trump. For the decrepit Mr Biden – insofar as he is capable of uttering a coherent sentence at all – has little or nothing to say in support of beleaguered Christianity, or in support of the innocents massacred daily, and without even an anaesthetic to spare them the final agony of being torn limb from limb in the womb of their mother.

But the most striking and commendable feature of Archbishop Vigano’s letter is its opening: “In recent months we have been witnessing the formation of two opposing sides that I should call biblical: the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light constitute the most conspicuous part of humanity, while the children of darkness represent an absolute minority.”

“And yet the former are the object of a sort of discrimination which places them in a situation of moral inferiority with respect to their adversaries, who often hold strategic positions in government, in politics, in the economy and in the media. In an apparently inexplicable way, the good are held

hostage by the wicked and by those who help them either out of selfinterest or fearfulness.”

“These two sides, which have a biblical nature, follow the clear separation between the offspring of the Woman and the offspring of the Serpent. On the one hand there are those who, although they have a thousand defects and weaknesses, are motivated by the desire to do good, to be honest, to raise a family, to engage in work, to give prosperity to their homeland, to help the needy and, in obedience to the law of God, to merit the Kingdom of Heaven.

“On the other hand, there are those who serve themselves, who do not hold any moral principles, who want to demolish the family and the nation, exploit workers to make themselves unduly wealthy, foment internal divisions and warns, and accumulate power and money: for them the fallacious illusion of temporal well-being will one day – if they do not repent – yield to the terrible fate that awaits them, far from God, in eternal damnation.

In society, Mr President, these two opposing realities co-exist as eternal enemies, just as God and Satan are eternal enemies. And it appears that the children of darkness – whom we may easily identify with the deep state which you wisely oppose and which is fiercely waging war against you in these days – have decided to show their cards, so to speak, by now revealing their plans. They seem to be so certain of already having everything under control that they have laid aside that circumspection that until now had at least partially concealed their true intentions.”

Does this mean that every Republican is perfect? No. Does it mean that every “Democrat” is evil? No. But what Archbishop Vigano is saying is that, in general, using the yardstick of the Church’s own moral and social teaching, the Republicans – at least in the person of the President – are on the side of the angels and the “Democrats”, frankly, are not. It is high time that a high official of the Church said that.

Donald Trump Meets Leo Varadkar - Shannon 2019

22 BEING PRO-LIFE

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

A CLEAR STATEMENT OF BELIEF IN THE SACREDNESS OF UNBORN HUMAN LIFE AND THE SITUATION OF DANGER FOR THE UNBORN CHILD IN THE WORLD TODAY Sr Anne Marie Walsh S.O.L.T.

I feel compelled to say something after seeing, in recent days, some of the things that have been posted about pro-life, racism, the death penalty, etc. Please don’t quote Pope Francis to me, or any other prelate for that matter. I know exactly what they have said, and though much of it is well intentioned (let’s give the benefit of the doubt) in relationship to a number of “life” issues, much of it is also very misleading.

First off, there is NO moral equivalency between the deaths of 60 million INNOCENT babies, the overwhelming majority of whom are minority babies, and the 1518 people on death row who have been executed since 1976, close to the time when abortion was legalised in America. 60 million vs. 1518. Of those on death row, and executed in this period of time, 8.5% were Hispanic, 34.1% were black, 55.8% were White, and 1.6% were other. That equals 847 Whites, 517 Blacks, 129 Hispanics and 25 others. The race of the victims is surprising as well. 76% of the victims were White, 15% Black, 7% Hispanic and 2% other.

Think about that for a bit.

Now think about the numbers for abortion, because pro-lifers are fighting racism more deeply than almost any other group out there, unless you don’t think the slaughter of black babies in the womb is racist enough to qualify.

More black lives are lost through abortion than all other causes of death combined. By far, the highest percentage of aborted babies are

Black and then Hispanic and then White. Yes, all these issues are of one piece. But opposition to prolifers on the basis of a perceived obsession that ignores race, is a master lie that comes from the pits of hell, and is easily recognised by sane minds sanctified in the Truth.

If you can’t see it then you need to examine your own conscience!

Look at the evidence: • Over 50 million abortions have taken place in the US since 1973.

• In the US, less than 1 percent of abortions occur because of rape or incest.

• More African American babies have been killed by abortions since 1973 than the total number of African American deaths from AIDS, violent crimes, accidents, cancer and heart disease combined.

Approximate number of African American deaths since 1973:

• Abortion: 13+ Million • Heart Disease: 2.26 Million • Cancer: 1.64 Million • Accidents: 307,723 • Violent Crimes: 306,313 • AIDS: 203,649 • Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population in the US by over 25%.

• In the US, over 90% Down Syndrome babies are aborted.

(Who cares about the discrimination going on here?)

• The abortion industry in America each year in the U.S.

brings in approximately $831 million through their abortion services alone.

• In the world, a baby in the womb dies every 2 seconds.

Every time your heart beats, a baby dies.

I, emphatically reject the suggestion that anyone who is prolife, anti-abortion, is obsessed with one issue and unconcerned about the other life issues. It is utter nonsense! It is simply a repetition of an old, and false narrative and it is distressing to see anyone in leadership parrot such nonsense.

Such labelling and generalisations betray very real bias of another sort which has dark origins, very dark indeed! While I don’t support the death penalty, I cannot expend the bulk of my energy on it as an issue when millions are perishing on another front, and future generations are being wiped out.

So, Please don’t tell me you can vote for a pro-abort politician because at least they are anti death penalty. There is absolutely no equal comparison here.

Let’s use a different analogy to make the point crystal clear. We’re in a war. A fierce, bloody, ugly, smoke from hell war against life.

Saint John Paul II said life is always at the centre of the battle between good and evil. And where are the front lines today? The front lines always are found where there is direct engagement with the enemy and the loss of life is higher than anywhere else. There is no General or Commander in the history of the World who ever believed you

3rd July 2020

BEING PRO-LIFE 23

Catholic Voice

could win a war by staying away from the front lines and fighting the small battles behind the lines where the enemy may have infiltrated in small numbers. The seamless garment argument (you must attack all issues, and especially the lesser ones at once, or you are not really pro life and shouldn’t therefore do anything) is an example of this kind of appalling thinking and impotent strategy that believes you can win the war without ever going to the front lines where all the power of the enemy is wreaking the most destruction and will continue to do so unless someone feels an urgency to stop it.

Enemies do not magically go away. They conquer completely in the end, if you don’t fight back and fight back where the war is especially fierce. It is ludicrous to think anyone could consider this a legitimate strategy in warfare and no one who wanted to win a

war would appoint that kind of commander.

Is racism a problem? Perhaps. But, it is not what it was in the past.

Progress has been made. Don’t take my word for it, listen to some of the Black Leaders out there who read what’s really going on and are trying to get your attention in order to help you think beyond the sound bites and manipulated media clips that pull your strings just as really as if you were puppets! I, for one, reject the notion that I am racist simply because I’m white. And I reject the notion that all cops are bad because one did something horrific. Identity politics leads to the insanity we are currently seeing. Stop playing their game.

You are being played.

If you are a student of history, you will recognise the same tactics used in igniting the French Revolution and the rivers of blood

and destruction and desecration that followed. Outsiders came in to stir up the people against law and order, and to incite them to riot. Many, many, many lies were told for that purpose. And people believed them without thinking twice.

My own theory is that the emphasis upon the smaller battles and the discrediting of those who have the courage to fight on the front lines when it comes to abortion, comes from cowardice and a convicted conscience. We have a nation, and particularly a Church, of deserters.

Deserters in the battle for life on the front lines which should have been taken back decades ago! And we have, and will pay a price that is immeasurable. The consequences of our sin will recoil back on us, and have already begun to do so.

When it gets worse, and it will, remember why! We let the enemy win!

24 GARABANDAL

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

Garabandal – Hill Of Hope Anne Keeling

A Message of Great Significance The appearances of Our Lady at Garabandal from 1961 to 1965 have not been approved by the Catholic Church. While they have also not been condemned, the lack of official sanction has meant that many Catholics have failed to pay them the attention they deserve.

“As my message of October eighteenth has not been complied with and has not been made known to the world, I am advising you that this is the last one. Before, the cup was filling up. Now it is flowing over.

Many cardinals, many bishops and many priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them. Less and less importance is being given to the Eucharist.

T h e G a r a b a n d a l events are associated with messages and prophecies that are remarkable and that have huge connotations, which, as time has gone by, have merely made everything to do with Garabandal more compelling than ever before.

Garabandal is a tiny rural village in the beautiful region of Cantabria in the north of Spain. In June 1961, four young girls began to see Our Lady and their world, and that of their fellow villagers, turned upside down.

From their first apparition of St Michael the Archangel (18th of June 1961) to the final apparition of Our Lady to Conchita in 1965, the girls had visits from Our Lady not dozens, or hundreds, but thousands of times.

Why should we give their apparitions importance now if the Church has not seen fit to bless them? It is the content of the messages given for the world

by Our Lady in Garabandal, that we, today, should find of great significance.

Two messages were received by the girls, dictated by Our Lady, to be read in public. The first was

St Michael Archangel - Garabandal

received on the 18th of October 1961.

“We must make many sacrifices, perform much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently.

But first, we must lead good lives.

If we do not, a chastisement will befall us. The cup is already filling up, and if we do not change, a very great chastisement will come upon us.”

Here Our Lady reiterates the plea to her children that she made at Lourdes and at Fatima for repentance, prayer and penance.

Unless we follow her command there will be, she tells us plainly, “a very great chastisement”.

The second message of Our Lady of Garabandal, in particular, is striking. It was received from St Michael by Conchita and three years later on the 18th of June 1965, fifty five years ago this year.

You should turn the wrath of God away from yourselves by your efforts. If you ask His forgiveness with sincere hearts, He will pardon you. I, your mother, through the intercession of St Michael the Archangel, ask you to amend your lives.

You are now receiving the last warnings. I love you very much and do not want your condemnation.

Pray to Us with sincerity and we will grant your requests. You should make more sacrifices. Think about the passion of Jesus.”

The Warning Of course we cannot, in modern times, help but sit up at the words, spoken in 1965, “Many cardinals, many bishops and many priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them.”

Sadly the intervening years have shown us clearly the truth of these words.

In Garabandal Our Lady also spoke to the young visionaries of a future event called the Warning.

This will be a supernatural event during which every person on earth

3rd July 2020

GARABANDAL 25

Catholic Voice

will experience an Illumination of Conscience – a brief but very difficult trial which will make our sins and their effects clear to us.

We will see our souls as God sees them.

Numerous other saints of the Church have also spoken of a similar happening to the Warning, or Illumination of Conscience: St Edmund Campion, SJ; Blessed Anna Maria Taigi; Blessed Pope Pius IX; St Faustina Kowalska and St Pope Paul VI. However, before this Warning, whenever it may be, Our Lady also told of how there would come a Tribulation. The seers heard of this first on the night of the 19th of June 1962. It was not spoken about at first. Then in 1967 Mari Loli spoke about it to a Mexican priest, Fr Gustavo Morales, and the same information was recorded three years later by Maria Saraco, one of Garabandal’s foremost promoters.

Mari Loli said: “We saw a great multitude of people who were suffering intensely and screaming in terror. The Blessed Virgin explained to us that this great tribulation, which was not even the Chastisement, would come because a time would arrive when the Church would appear to be on the point of perishing. It would pass through a terrible trial. We asked the Virgin what this great trial was called and she told us it was ‘communism’.”

This year the COVID-19 virus with its origins in Communist-led China forced the world into lock-down and led to millions of Catholics being denied Holy Mass and the Sacraments for months. How and when will the Church emerge from this crisis? What kind of Church will emerge?

When this tragic pandemic began Conchita broke her long silence with some words of comfort: “God is detaching us from the securities of this world. In the silence of the Church or in our house, we are now able to make an examination of conscience so we can clean what prevents us from hearing the Voice of God clearly.

With sincerity we can ask God to tell us what He wants of us today, and continue to do that every day.

And spend as much time as possible

with God at church or somewhere in your home or where you find the silence. He is all we need.” (19th March 2020) In 2018 a beautiful film about Garabandal – “Garabandal – Only God Knows” was released.

It can be viewed on www. garabandalthemovie.com.

This July a documentary film – “Garabandal – the Uncontainable Cascade” will be available free of charge on YouTube.

26 POLAND

Catholic Voice

3rd July 2020

Polish President: LGBT Ideology Is ‘More Destructive’ Than Communism Martin Bürger

Polish President Andrzej Duda has called homosexuality and transgenderism an ideology that is “even more destructive to the human being” than communism.

Poland had been a communist dictatorship after World War II until 1989.

During a campaign speech, Duda compared the indoctrination that took place during communism with the indoctrination of homosexuality and gender ideology.

“That was Bolshevism. It was the ideologising of children. Today, there are also attempts to push an ideology on us and our children, but different. It’s totally new, but it is also neo-Bolshevism,” he explained.

“I believe in the world where truths, such as ‘Me Too’, can have a safe platform. Where we can speak our mind, where words are not twisted.

I believe in tolerance to any views, so please stop distributing fake news,” he added.

Polish President Andrzej Duda His campaign platform includes a “The family deserves special “Family Card” listing his many pro- support from the state,” he pointed family policies. It includes a section out. “The family protects and builds titled “Protection of children from society.”

LGBT ideology.”

“Our identity has helped us to That section promises “an end to weather the toughest times in ideological LGBT propaganda in childhood,” Duda added. “The Polish family has preserved our public institutions” and “the right values. The family is a special value, of parents to decide in what spirit which demands special protection to shape their children.” It includes from the state … Marriage is a a belief that “parents above all are relationship between women and responsible for the sexual education men, and so it will remain.” of their children” and expresses support for “the parents’ decisive Duda, a practicing Catholic, began influence on the form and substance his presidency in 2015 by making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of of optional classes in schools.”

Częstochowa, who is venerated as The “Family Card” also offers Queen and Protectress of Poland. “help for families who want to For the feast of Corpus Christi homeschool.”

In other sections, the “Family in 2015, he was seen rescuing a Card” pledges financial support for consecrated host that had dropped families, help for senior citizens, to the ground during an outdoor Mass. and help for single parents.

As part of his campaign to be elected president for a second term, Duda has pledged to protect children from the agenda of homosexuality and gender ideology.

According to the president, the family is crucial to Poland, and the traditional definition of marriage will prevail.

Following numerous negative articles by international media outlets, Duda sent out several tweets in English to Reuters, The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Guardian, and the Financial Times, clarifying his position.

“Yet again, as part of a dirty political fight, my words are put out of context. I truly believe in diversity and equality,” Duda said.

“At the same time, beliefs of any minority cannot be imposed on a majority under the false pretence of tolerance. In our times, truth has become a scared little creature that hides from much stronger correctness.”

Duda is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House next Wednesday, just a few days before the presidential election in Poland.

3rd July 2020 Catholic Voice

ABORTION NORTHERN IRELAND 27

The Abortion Vote In The North Of Ireland: Shocking Contempt For Our Community Fr Paddy McCafferty

I am addressing these words specifically to Christians in the Irish Catholic tradition.

In the wake of the enforced abortion legislation, that has been rail-roaded through the British Parliament, we need to reflect.

The most extreme abortion regime in the world has been imposed on our part of the island of Ireland, despite the fact that the majority of our elected representatives oppose it and without any opportunity for the Northern Irish electorate, to say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’.

This is a display of shocking contempt for our entire community.

It is a betrayal of democracy and it makes a sham of the devolution by which it was agreed that we would be governed. The arrogance behind this evil law being forced through is utterly colossal.

We cannot, however, blame the British Parliament alone. This bill, crafted by the pro abortion British Labour MP, Stella Creasy, had the support of Sinn Féin. Colum Eastwood and Claire Hanna of the SDLP, both of whom were elected to the British Parliament, also voted in favour of this cruel and wicked law.

Traditionally, as Irish Catholics, many of us have voted for the SDLP and Sinn Féin. The time has come to reassess such traditional political allegiances. Indeed, the time has come to “wipe the dust from our feet” (see Matthew 10:14), in regard to politicians and political parties that avowedly promote and support behaviours and acts that are diametrically opposed to – and

irreconcilable with – our Catholic Christian Faith.

We cannot separate our Faith from any area of our lives. We cannot disagree with abortion “in private” and then publicly support those who have no qualms about killing up to birth, boys and girls with a physical defect, or who are missing one chromosome.

With Jesus Christ, there is no neutral position. He clearly tells us that if we are not “for Him” then we are “against Him” (see Luke 11:23). Those who deny Him in the presence of human beings, He will deny in the Presence of His Father in Heaven (see Matthew 10:33).

We can deny Christ by our actions and inactions as well as our words and silences. To vote for a pro abortion politician is a denial of Christ. It is to give tacit support to ideologies that are contrary to God’s

commandments – specifically, in the case of abortion, “Thou shalt not kill”.

It is never morally permissible or acceptable to deliberately kill a child in the womb and this barbaric law, that has been imposed on our society, allows for the killing of children up to actual birth.

This is legalised and state sanctioned infanticide. This is what Sinn Féin and very significant and influential elements within the SDLP have pro-actively campaigned for this last few years, conniving with the likes of Mrs Creasy, to ensure that unlimited abortion would be available, on demand, throughout Ireland, North and South.

All of us, who truly believe in God and strive to live by our “most holy Faith” (Jude 1:20), must reappraise where we stand and where our loyalties lie. This equally applies to

“When Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb.” (Luke 1:41) The Visitation - Fra Angelico (1395 - 1455)

28 ABORTION NORTHERN IRELAND faithful Catholics in the 26 counties who have traditionally voted for the parties there. In the wake of that dark and evil day, of May 25th, 2018, our brothers and sisters across the border, also need to re-examine traditional allegiances.

It is unconscionable for a faithful child of God to support in any way – or have any truck with – the advocates for abortion. We must reject pro abortion politicians and their parties at the ballot box.

Every aspect of our lives and all of our actions must be in harmony with our baptismal calling and our primary identity – before anything else – as daughters and sons of God. This is the integrity demanded and expected of us by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before allegiance to any earthly country, we are, first and foremost, citizens with all of God’s people (E p h es i a n s 2 : 1 9 ) , of G od’s Kingdom. We are called to build God’s Kingdom in this world, to make God’s Kingdom present here on earth, by living a life a love (II John 1:6).

A life of love is not consistent with tearing children limb from limb

Catholic Voice

in their mothers’ wombs. It is not consistent with injecting lethal poison into their hearts or killing them at birth because they have a cleft palate or are Downs Syndrome children. The intentional killing of unborn children is always a monstrous evil and every true child of God will oppose it with every fibre of his and her being.

The demarcation lines are drawn. In wiping the dust of certain political affiliations from our feet we must also repeat the Lord’s warning to those who promote murder disguised as so-called “choice” – “I tell you most solemnly, on the Day of Judgement it will go as hard with Sodom and Gomorrah as it will with you” (Luke 10:12).

As faithful Catholics and Christians, we are going to find ourselves, more and more, as a minority in this society. This should not fill us with dismay – quite the opposite.

We have just finished reading at Mass, over the last number of days, about the great ministry of the prophet Elijah who “arose like a fire” (Ecclesiasticus 48:1) when times were very dark and when practically everyone had turned away from God and defied His Law.

3rd July 2020 Elijah was the only one left in all of Israel who was faithful to God and continued to proclaim God’s Truth to powerful leaders, who hated him and wanted him dead. He also had to contend with a cowardly and apostate people, who had sold out to evil by turning away from the Living and True God, to worship a bloodthirsty demon god, which included child sacrifice among the depravities fostered by its cult.

We need to have the courage of our convictions and be unafraid in these evil times. In a recent Sunday Gospel at Mass, we heard Our Lord say to us, “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Fear Him rather who can destroy both body and soul in Hell” (Matthew 10:28). The Lord Jesus has also told us that the opposition and hostility of the world will be our “opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:13).

When we were baptised we were anointed as prophets. We were set apart from the world to bear witness to the Truth and to DO THE TRUTH. We were not anointed with a lie but with the Truth and we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of Christ (1 John 2:27). The Lord Jesus Christ has said, “all who are in the side of Truth listen to my voice” (John 18:37).

Where does our loyalty lie? With Ireland? With a United Ireland?

Ireland will pass away. This world will pass away but whoever does the Will of God remains forever (1 John 2:17). Heaven and earth will pass away but my Word will never pass away (Matthew 24:35).

What foundation do we build upon if not that Solid Rock which withstands every assault of the storms (Matthew 7:25), for “the Lord God is an Everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26:4).

3rd July 2020 Catholic Voice Let us reject everything and everyone that is irreconcilable to our being in Christ, our belonging to Him. He has told us clearly that although we are “in the world” we “do not belong to the world” for the Lord’s choice has withdrawn us from the world (see John 15:1819 and 17:14-16). There is a clear decision to be made. As the great prophet Elijah once said, “how long will you limp between two opinions?” (I Kings 18:21).

The only choice a Christian can make is to choose God and to serve God. This will inevitably put us at total variance with what the Lord terms “the world”. So be it. Our Master has said, “in the world you will have trouble but BE BRAVE! I HAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD!” (John 16:33).

The “winning side” will be Lord’s side. People might win elections.

Politicians might have successes.

ABORTION NORTHERN IRELAND 29

Evil Laws may be promulgated.

But the fate of Evil is eternally sealed and set. God has already pronounced His sentence upon Evil and all workers of iniquity (Matthew 13:40-42). From all eternity, the Lord Jesus sees the end of Evil and where it leads: “I watched Satan fall like lightning from Heaven” (Luke 10:18).

Let us not be conformed to this passing world but let us be transformed by the renewal of our minds and thus become a transformative influence in our society and culture (see Romans 12:2). As faithful believers, we are a force with which to be reckoned and we are the winning team even when we appear defeated.

All it takes is one little light. All is needed is one pinch of yeast.

A sprinkle of salt makes all the difference. Let us therefore STAND! (see Ephesians 6:14-17). Our stand

is always against – never with – “the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). For what part has Christ with Satan? The Word of God says, “be not unequally yoked with unbelievers” and “how shall two walk together unless they be in agreement?” (see Amos 3:3 and II Corinthians 6:15-18) I say without hesitation, as a priest and a minister of the Gospel, the time has come to part company from and no longer walk with, those who promote what is evil.

We must pray for their conversion – those politicians who agree with evil – that the eyes of their souls be opened and that they leave the darkness that has engulfed them and threatens them eternally. But we can no longer have any truck with them.

It is now time that we come out from among them and are separated from them (II Corinthians 6:17).

Holy Communion on the Tongue is a Right “In distributing Holy Communion it is to be remembered that “sacred ministers may not deny the sacraments to those who seek them in a reasonable manner, are rightly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them”. Hence any baptized Catholic who is not prevented by law must be admitted to Holy Communion.”

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34). (Evangelium Vitae 20)

“...each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue” (From Redemptionis Sacramentum 91 & 92) Please contact The Lumen Fidei Institute if you encounter any difficulties at Holy Mass in receiving Holy Communion on the tongue.

Not only is this your right, but God has a right to come to you in this reverent way. secretary@lumenfidei.ie - 085-1208779

30 BOOKS

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3rd July 2020

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Why would a non-Muslim want to read the story of Mohammed? The author, Harry Richardson, gives this answer: Mohammed’s story is the most incredible story never told. It is said that truth is stranger than fiction and honestly, NO ONE could have made this up. There are battles, murders, intrigues, rapes, assassinations, torture, intimidation, and much more. Along the way Mohammed invented Jihad, the most effective system of conquest ever devised.

Mohammed’s life story is also the key which unlocks the complexities and confusion of the Islamic reliGion itself. By understanding his story we quickly gain a clear insight into Islam and the incredible importance this subject holds for our future. This amazing book pulls no punches and brings the subject to life in a way which is both fascinating and informative. Tather than looking at Islam through a prism of Western (and by default, Christian) perspective, it examines the Islamic perspective itself. In doing so it illuminates the contrast between Western and Islamic ethics and beliefs in plain and simple language which makes it a delight to read. There are no apologies, no excuses and no pretending. This is not Islam as we want it to be, this is Islam as it really is.

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REFLECTIONS ON THE ABORTION ISSUE IN IRELAND:

“There is in every man and woman a belief below the level of consciousness that some things are inherently right or wrong. It is a natural moral sense that transcends borders and cultures. One such universal belief is that human life is precious and consequently human killing can never be countenanced. The deliberate killing of a human being is considered the ultimate crime. The most fundamental of all human rights is the right to life.

No person, no law, and no government can extinguish that right. Remove that right and all other human rights become meaningless.

However, many countries, including Ireland, have removed that right from the Constitution and given the legislature the power to legalise abortion, which by definition is the intentional killing of the unborn child. The assumption is that unborn babies have no human rights. The essays in this monograph expose the fallacy that unborn babies do not have the right to life and may be ‘terminated’ if that is the ‘choice’ of the mother. In the New Ireland, human killing is now legal. It is estimated that 800 – 900 unwanted unborn babies are ‘terminated’ every month. Abortion has become the murder machine of our time.”

James M Bourke has been involved in the pro-life movement in Ireland for many years. Like all those who cherish human life, he was very disappointed when the referendum to repeal the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution was passed. This removed all legal protection from unborn children. In this book James shares his reflections on how the referendum was won and on how we must restore legal protection to the unborn regardless of the cost.

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