Catholic Voice 9th October 2020 Issue 301

CatholicVoice Only 0 Irel and/N I £2 UK

€/£1.5

Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat

9 October 2020 - 22 October 2020

Issue 301

October - Month Of The Holy Rosary “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”

(Apocalypse 12:1)

“Then war broke out in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

(Apocalypse 12:1)

“Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring —those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus” (Apocalypse 12:1)

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

2 EDITORIAL

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

A Tale Of Two Bishops

Anthony Murphy

of the virus has reached serious levels and constitutes a real risk of radically increased infection within the community. In many cases, the increase in numbers is due to gatherings within households and communities.”

quoting a Vatican document urging a rapid return to normal worship.

Some are using that as an indication that the official line of the Holy See is to object to restrictions. This is a very serious distortion of what that document says.”

At the time of writing there are 88 people in hospital with the virus but thankfully the number of deaths continues to remain low and the recovery rate continues to increase.

Actually it is not - the document, which is approved by Pope Francis says:

In the response to the current Covid restrictions it is charitable to observe that our bishops have been silent and have dutifully obeyed the dictats of the secular State without question. The restrictions on public Mass are unjust and unnecessary and deprive Catholics of essential spiritual nourishment. Dublin and Donegal are the only places in Europe where public Mass is forbidden even though there have been no clusters or outbreaks of the Chinese virus due to church gatherings.

In the same letter the archbishop also observes that “It is true that due to the extraordinary effort of parishes in adapting Church buildings and reducing attendance, thank God, there has been no indication of the virus being spread in worshiping communities.”

The Archbishop of Dublin, always eager to support his friends in the government, immediately published a letter on the Dublin diocesan website and observed that “many people may be underestimating the seriousness of the current situation in County Dublin and indeed now in other counties. The spread

The archbishop misleads the faithful when he writes “I have seen reports

CatholicVoice

Editor: Anthony Murphy editor@catholicvoice.ie Telephone: 059 8627268 ROI 00353 59 8627268 Outside ROI Keep up to date with news and articles via The Lumen Fidei website www.lumenfidei.ie

So no evidence of any risk of spread during public Mass and the archbishop takes the first opportunity to move things back online again.

“As soon as circumstances permit, however, it is necessary and urgent to return to the normality of Christian life, which has the church building as its home and the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, as “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed, at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows” It is up to the prudent but firm action of the Bishops to ensure that the participation of the faithful in the celebration of the Eucharist is not reduced by public authorities to a “gathering”, and is not considered comparable or even subordinate to forms of recreational activities.”

9th October 2020 Catholic Voice Given that the archbishop has already acknowledged “there has been no indication of the virus being spread in worshiping communities” why has he been so quick to cave in to the secular authorities and ban public Mass in his diocese? How long will he continue to cave in and what plans is he making to ensure safe public worship at Christmas?

derive from the practice of your faith and connection with your faith community. City Hall ignored us.

City Hall ignored you. They didn’t deny it, but they simply ignored you. It has become clear to me that they just don’t care about you. To them you are nothing, to them you don’t matter. Let me repeat that: to City Hall, you don’t matter.

In contrast Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco has challenged restrictions in his diocese. He published a letter to the faithful entitled “Catholics at the back of the line” in which he says:

One person at a time in this great cathedral to pray? What an insult.

This is a mockery. They are mocking you, and even worse, they are mocking God.

“For months I have pleaded with the city on your behalf, advocating for your need of the consolation of the Mass, and the consolation you

To City Hall, you don’t matter.”

The archbishop also led a Procession bringing our Eucharistic Lord out onto the streets of his city

TALE OF TWO BISHOPS 3 in a public act of defiance against the unjust restrictions which as he notes are mocking God. Archbishop Cordileone is showing true leadership while his counterpart in Ireland chooses to remain silent as God is mocked. Let us pray that one Irish bishop has a Pentecost moment and takes the lead in insisting that religious worship is an “essential activity” and that our churches are not merely public places they are also sacred places where the faithful should always have the right to receive the Body of Christ and to worship the Lord present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Traditional Mass Promoters Awarded Papal Medal On Sunday 13th September, 2020, after the Latin Mass in St Mary’s Church, Drumkeen, Co.Donegal, Proinsias and Fionnuala Ó Muireagáin were presented with the Papal Benemerenti medal for their dedication and long service to the Catholic Church. The medal was presented to them by Fr Liam Boyle on behalf of Bishop Alan McGuckian of the Raphoe Diocese.

Proinsias and Fionnuala have spent over 30 years promoting the Latin Mass and the Fatima apostolate.

Proinsias, who is in his nineties, still serves the Latin Mass which is celebrated in St Mary’s at 11.00am every Sunday.

The Benemerenti Medal was first awarded by Pope Pius VI (1775–1799) in recognition of military service on behalf of the Catholic Church. In 1925, the practice of including non-military persons, clerical and lay, in these awards for great service to the Catholic Church was introduced.

On behalf of all of us here at Catholic Voice, I would like to extend my warm congratulations and thanks to Proinsias and Fionnuala for their tireless work promoting the Latin mass and the message of Fatima both so much needed in these dark times.

4 CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE JUDGE

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

President Trump Nominates Justice Amy Coney Barrett To American Supreme Court Martin Bürger

Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett is “an absolute all-star” and “a judicial role model for the next generation,” pro-life leaders said.

If confirmed, Barrett will replace pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nomination during his first term in office.

Barrett is a Catholic mother of seven and former University of Notre Dame law professor, where she was part of the Faculty for Life group.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said, “President Trump has chosen an absolute all-star in Judge Amy Coney Barrett to serve as our nation’s newest Supreme Court justice.”

“Amy Coney Barrett is a brilliant jurist in the mold of the late Justice Scalia, and President Trump could not have made a stronger selection to fill this Supreme Court vacancy,” she continued. “We have full confidence that the pro-life Senate majority will move swiftly to confirm her before the election.”

Dannenfelser recalled the attacks Barrett endured during her 2017 confirmation hearing to become a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

“An accomplished woman of bold conviction, Amy Barrett withstood outrageous personal attacks on her Catholic faith from pro-abortion senators with grace and integrity during her 2017 confirmation hearing,” she commented. “Judge Barrett has shown courage, wisdom, and brilliance during her tenure on the 7th Circuit. Her experience and expertise make her extremely qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court.”

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, rejoiced that “President Donald Trump has, for the first time in our nation’s history, given conservative women a voice on the nation’s highest court. Amy Coney Barrett is a constitutionalist, a top-notch legal scholar, and simply the best choice for this seat.”

“Once again, President Donald Trump has delivered for America, and especially for women,” she added.

“I am honored to be here to witness this historic announcement at the White House, and I’m eager to get to work to see this nomination through a final vote.”

Nance described Barrett as “the sort of role model we want for our daughters.”

Could you consider leaving a bequest for CatholicVoice?

As a not for profit registered organisation we rely on the generosity of our benefactors for financial and prayerful support.

A bequest from you in your Last Will and Testament would help us to continue growing the publication of Catholic Voice and the dissemination of Catholic Truth If you are in a position to leave a bequest, however large or small, you are assured that it will be used to promote and strengthen Catholic teaching.

May God bless you for your generosity.

“We are ready to stand against the unjust and, frankly, bigoted attacks we’ve heard laid against Judge Barrett’s faith,” Nance emphasised. “We hope Senate Democrats are able to pull themselves together and rise about such anti-Christian and anti-American dogmatism. But we have already seen the table laid out by their friends in the mainstream media.”

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins similarly characterised Barrett as “a judicial role model for the next generation, and our team will mobilise across the country for this qualified jurist who deserves to be heard.”

“For too long, activist judges have used the U.S. Constitution as a blank check, to be filled in on behalf of their pet causes,” Hawkins said. “Case in point: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that created from nothing a ‘right’ to abortion and wiped out all abortion laws nationwide. That kind of judicial activism tears at the heart of the nation as people lose trust in the law when it can be made up as you go along. America needs jurists like Justice Antonin Scalia, who respect the law as written, and whom Judge Barrett clerked for before being confirmed to serve at the U.S. Court of Appeals.”

9th October 2020 Catholic Voice

CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE JUDGE 5

Justice Amy Coney Barret - Catholic Pro-Life Mother of seven children with President Trump at White House Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson was “thrilled” with the nomination.

“This is the moment that the pro-life movement and those who hold all life to be dear and treasured have been waiting for,” she said. “This is the fight we are more than prepared to win. And this is a movement led in large part by strong, faithful women, just like Amy Coney Barrett, who have fought hard to get to where they are now. It’s our time.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, said that Trump once again “is following through on his promise and has selected a nominee who has a proven, originalist track record. Judge Amy Barrett is a highly qualified nominee who is committed to the Constitution and understands that a judge’s role is not to legislate from the bench.”

average American than the insular Ivy League circles which have for so long dominated the high court. In addition, Judge Barrett would also replace Justice Ginsburg as the only mother on the Court, ensuring that the working mums our country depends so much on continue to have a voice there.”

Fr. Peter Rookey, Miracle Prayer, and Healing Cloths Available from Declan & Carmel

“Thanks to President Trump, we now have the opportunity after many decades to finally return lawmaking back to the legislatures that are elected by the people,” Perkins pointed out. “The Left, failing to win in the court of public opinion and in legislatures, has increasingly relied on the courts to rewrite laws to suit their purposes. However, the reality is sinking in among Senate Democrats that the era of legislating from the Supreme Court bench may soon be over. That’s why the president’s judicial nominees face smears and attacks on their faith.”

Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank, focused on the fact that Barrett “would bring a perspective to the Court which is currently absent. She would be the only current justice who did not attend either Harvard or Yale Law School, and her educational background puts her closer to the

Phone For Details: 051 873625 Outside ROI: 00353 51 873625

6 LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

The Saints’ Attributes Saint Jerome - The Doctor of Sacred Scripture Canon Joseph Heppelle I.C.K.S.P.

On 30 September, Holy Mother Church keeps the feast of the saint whom she calls “the Greatest Doctor for expounding Sacred Scripture” (Collect, Roman Missal) Born in 342, from a young age St. Jerome showed a propensity for studies. His father sent him to Rome to get a classical education. While he was a baptised Catholic, he did not show the same enthusiasm for religion as he did for classical literature. This changed one day when he fell ill in Asia Minor. In a high fever he saw, what he himself calls a vision, in which he was brought to the judgement seat of God. There our Lord asked him what he was. Naturally, Jerome said he was a Christian. The Just Judge’s terrible response was: “you are not a Christian, but a Ciceronian!” Upon recovering from his illness, Saint Jerome resolved to use his talents for Christian studies. He retreated into the Syrian desert to live as a hermit.

In this desert he not only mortified the body by fasting and other corporal penances, he also mortified the mind by studying Hebrew. Trained as he was in the Latin and Greek classics, he initially found the Hebrew tongue too guttural and “barbaric” to find any pleasure in it. As he continued his studies and deepened his knowledge

of Sacred Scripture he slowly found more pleasure therein as he grew to love more and more the God who inspired the Sacred Texts.

In 382 Saint Jerome was back in Rome. The fourth century was a critical time in the life of the Church.

Learning was beginning to decline. Fewer people in the west were learning Greek, and nobody (outside the Jews) knew Hebrew. To make matters worse, the latin translations of the Scriptures that had been made in the proceeding centuries were not always very good. Recognising Saint Jerome’s talents, Pope Saint Damasus, entrusted him with the herculean task of translating the Bible into Latin. The result, which took Jerome the rest of his life to complete, is the Latin Vulgate.

Meanwhile, there were several ladies in Roman high society who were yearning for a deeper spiritual life. These included St. Paula and her daughter St. Eustochium who placed themselves under St. Jerome’s guidance. They also began distributing their very large fortunes (fourth century AD Roman family fortunes would put Mr. Gates in the shade) to the poor. Of course, one poor man they helped was Saint Jerome himself, as they financed his ever growing personal library. Books in those days where very expensive.

Only two years later, however, St. Damasus died.

Without his papal protector, Jerome found that his hot temper and sarcastic tongue had made Rome too hot to hold him. He decided to go to the Holy Land. Where better to work on understanding and translating the Bible? He travelled the length and breadth of Palestine to familiarise himself with the places named in the Bible and then settled in Bethlehem where he founded a monastery with a large library (paid for of course by St. Paula and her friends). Saints Paula & Eustochium soon followed him and founded a convent of nuns nearby.

From his monastery, St. Jerome devoted himself to his work. He not only translated the Bible, but also wrote many valuable commentaries. Additionally, he wrote many letters and articles denouncing the heresies of the day. In these latter works, we can often see his caustic wit. Many of his letters abound with biting satire and sarcasm that one would hardly expect to find on a saint’s tongue. He even managed to get into a fight with just about every other saint of his day. He once began a letter to St. Augustine, for example, with the words: “Far be it from me to presume to correct you blessed self, but…” While Saint Jerome is a sign of hope for all those who share his weaknesses of a hot temper and a sarcastic tongue, we need to remember that he became

9th October 2020

LIVES OF THE SAINTS 7

Catholic Voice

a saint, not by giving in to his defaults, but because he constantly strove to overcome them by penance and true love of neighbour.

The clearest example of his sanctity can be seen in a tragic episode that occurred in his old age. A group of Pelagian monks, doubtless offended by St. Jerome’s less than tactful denunciation of their heresy, attacked his monastery in Bethlehem one night. Not only did they burn his priceless library, they also beat to death one of his spiritual sons. Saint Jerome’s charity was so great that he unhesitantly forgave the perpetrators of these foul deeds.

Saint Jerome has quite a few artistic attributes. He is often depicted with writing materials and a book, a skull, and a red cardinal’s red hat. Some artists paint Jerome in a cardinal’s scarlet robe. This, of course, is an anachronism, as cardinals, as we know them, did not exist in Jerome’s day. If Saint Jerome had been living later age however, as the secretary of the Pope he most likely would have been made a cardinal.

The

Dominicans

Truth ...the Only Safe

Ground to Stand On!

Another common attribute is the lion. This refers to a legend that Saint Jerome once tamed a lion in the wilderness and brought him back to the monastery to help with the chores and guard the monastery’s donkey.

The skull shows St. Jerome’s detachment from worldly concerns, and perhaps his great asceticism. His penitential asceticism is certainly put in relief when he is portrayed beating his bare emancipated chest with a stone. Indeed there is a story that Pope Sixtus V was one day looking at just such a picture of this saint in the Vatican and commented: “You did well to carry that stone my friend, because without it the church would never have been able to canonize you.”

While we are not all called to be great scholars or spiritual directors like St. Jerome, we can and should imitate him in the unceasing war he waged against his own imperfections.

"If your life is not what it could be, try telling the Truth."

- Jordan B. Peterson Director of Vocations: Fr Colm Mannion OP

Mobile: 086-0864420 | Email: colm.mannion@dominicans.ie

8 HOLY COMMUNION

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

Doctors To German Bishops: ‘No Medical Reasons For A Ban Of Communion On The Tongue Maike Hickson

A group of German medical doctors has written a statement to the German Bishops’ Conference in which they say that there are “no medical reasons for a ban of Communion on the tongue,” according to a press release obtained by LifeSiteNews.

The document is written by “physicians from different regions and with different medical specialties,” one of the organisers of the document told LifeSite. The initiative was taken, according to the speaker who wishes to remain anonymous, “because we in Germany thought that, after the lifting of the ban on Communion on the tongue in Austria, this would be allowed again after a short delay also in our country. But since this was not even the case after weeks, we started this initiative.”

In June, 21 Austrian doctors quoted the professional opinion of Professor Filippo Maria Boscia, the president of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Italy who stated in May that “Communion on the tongue is safer than hand Communion.”

In light of the coronavirus crisis, the German bishops banned Communion on the tongue. That ban is still in effect. Thus, faithful are forced to receive Holy Communion on the hand.

The German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, which first reported on this new initiative on September 17, explains more in detail what the arguments of this group of medical doctors are.

According to this newspaper, the medical doctors rely, among others, on the work of the Munich virologist Michael Roggendorf who works in the field of coronavirus crisis intervention.

According to these physicians, the hands of communicants in the churches are also carriers of viruses and bacteria since they touch the pews when sitting and kneeling.

Therefore, the reception of Holy Communion in the hand “cannot be regarded as a safe [hygienic] alternative,” states the Tagespost report.

If during the distribution of Holy Communion, the priest should touch one of the communicants’ tongues, he can disinfect his hands. In addition, when opening one’s mouth, one tends to breathe in, rather than out, so that the dispersion of droplets is not so probable. Thus, the report explains, Communion on the tongue is safer than Communion on the hand, also since the kneeling position for Communion on the tongue creates a safer distance between the priest and the communicants.

Further summing up the arguments of the 27 medical doctors in favour of Communion on the tongue, the Tagespost report says that the traditional rite of Holy Mass includes a strict procedure of the cleansing of the hands which is part of the Mass. That is to say, the cleanliness of the priest does not depend upon his own whims, but is, instead, part of the rite of the Mass. Only the priest is allowed to touch the chalice and the paten and ciborium. In addition, the priest celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass is not even touching anything anymore with his thumb and pointer – which remain pressed upon each other – after consecration, thus

keeping these two fingers especially clean.

Furthermore, the medical doctors also point out that Switzerland never put a ban on Communion on the tongue and never experienced a spike in infections due to the practice of Communion on the tongue.

With regard to other illnesses, such as the flu and meningococcal infections, the doctors state that there is a low risk of infection.

As a September 19 press release of the group of medical doctors states, the German Bishops Conference will decide during their upcoming assembly whether to “lift the ban on Communion on the tongue.”

With it, they follow their colleagues in Austria, who had had a similar initiative already on the Feast of Corpus Christi, in June of this year and in the wake of which the “Austrian Bishops’ Conference has lifted the ban on Communion on the tongue.”

These German physicians hope that “with their intervention, there will be an end to the conflict of conscience among many faithful and priests and the canoncially ordinary form of reception of Communion will no longer be denied.”

According to the press release, other doctors have already now joined the original group of signatories.

The pro-family organisation Voice of the Family hosted an online conference in July stressing the importance of receiving Holy Communion worthily, that is: kneeling and on the tongue. One of its speakers, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, insisted that a bishop oversteps his authority in denying Catholics the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. “Many bishops are abusing their authority right now because … they’re supposed to uphold Canon Law and Canon Law is really clear that the faithful have the right to receive communion on the tongue. That’s it,” he stated.

9th October 2020 Catholic Voice

PRO-LIFE WORK 9

Job Vacancies

Expanding Pregnancy Support Outreach Service!

HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL (IRELAND) is seeking part-time staff to work with our Ask Majella Pregnancy Support Service at different locations across Ireland – North and South. We are opening new centres and expanding existing ones. Are you passionate about helping women who need support during their pregnancies? The situation is critical and we are responding to the challenge.

Pregnancy Care Personnel Positions - Republic Of Ireland Centre Coordinators:

5-10 hours per week. 3 positions available, 1 per location listed below. See job description below.

Centre Nurses Or Centre Sonographers.

5-10 hours per week. 3 positions available – one per location listed below.

Locations:

Limerick City Centre, Drogheda Town Centre, Co. Louth and in Co. Wexford or County Kilkenny.

Pregnancy Care Personnel Positions - Northern Ireland

Client Advocate. (5-10 hours per week). - Location: yet to be confirmed but based in Northern Ireland.

Applicants who are passionate about the lives of the unborn and their mothers are encouraged to apply for these paid posts or other voluntary positions.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS Centre Coordinator: This role encompasses the management and overseeing of a team of staff, volunteers and of the centre itself. This role will also entail meeting with clients who schedule appointments at the centre and promotion of the service.

Centre Nurse Or Centre Sonographer: Trained sonographers or registered nurses are encouraged to apply. A key role is the performing of limited obstetrical ultrasounds. Applicants must either have a relevant qualification in this field or be willing to be trained.

Client Advocate: This role will entail meeting with clients through scheduled appointments to provide supportive information to clients on their pregnancy.

As well as technical skills, these posts will require an ability for unequivocal articulation, representation and advancement of magisterial Catholic Church teaching in life, faith and family issues. Please note that HLI (Ireland) has other administrative and volunteer vacancies. *We are also seeking to rent low-cost suitable office premises for our work.

Closing date for applications: 12th of October 2020 Send C.V. to Catherine Leigh, Human Life International (Ireland), Guadalupe Centre, Main Street, Knock, Co. Mayo.

Email: catherine@humanlife.ie. Tel: (ROI) 094-937 5993 or (NI) 00353 94 9375993 - Charity CHY 11138

10 LETTERS

Catholic Voice

Letters

9th October 2020 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie

Public Worship Dear Editor, I was very saddened to learn today that there will be no public Masses for the next three weeks. As a daily Communicant, I was upset to hear that I, along with many other practising Catholics, will not be able to receive the Holy Eucharist for a minimum of 3 weeks.

The Eucharist is our spiritual nourishment and therefore the Mass is ‘an essential service’. Since the restrictions on public worship were lifted on June 29th, the Church has made huge strides in keeping it a safe environment for all its parishioners.

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

1 CD inc p&p €7.50

Complete coupon and return with cheque/postal order to The Lumen Fidei Institute, Raith, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo F35 V127 Name: ...........................................................................................

Address: ........................................................................................ ....................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................

Phone No: .....................................................................................

Please send me ______copies of the CD - ‘Hands off our Kids’ Total Enclosed: € ________ To pay by post with credit/debit card please complete: Card number: ______________________________________ Expiry Date: _________________ C.V.V._______________

There have been no clusters or outbreaks of Covid-19 due to church gatherings and hundreds of stewards across the country, in conjunction with their parish priests, have gone to tremendous lengths to ensure the safety of all.

Having participated in stewarding myself, I have witnessed how abiding church-goers have been to social distancing, hand sanitising and mask-wearing while inside. As David Quinn, of the Iona Institute, correctly pointed out on the Pat Kenny show, we are the only city in Europe at present that will be banning public worship, despite higher incidences of Covid-19 cases in these countries.

Catholics need to receive Jesus in the Eucharist - it is as essential for our spiritual well-being, as food is for our physical well-being.

In these challenging days for us all, we need God’s sustenance to strengthen and fortify us in the weeks and months ahead.

Aisling Bastible, Clontarf, Dublin.

9th October 2020

LETTERS 11

Catholic Voice

Letters Useful Idiots Dear Editor, Is it a safe bet to say in relation to Covid 19; in the history of ‘Useful Idiots’ there are more useful idiots in politics today than any other time in history?

I am not denying a new type strain of flu appeared earlier

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

this year, however, the United Nations and the World illHealth Disorganisation have definitely collected themselves more muppets than they could ever have imagined, to peddle their Marxist waffle.

John Donohue, Cork

Catholic Voice Update Dear Reader, Since March when the pandemic first affected the publication of Catholic Voice we have been grateful for the support received to enable us to continue publishing.

As a not for profit organisation our income is from advertising, publication sales and donations. Both of the former have been seriously reduced for almost 6 months now due to the restrictions and closures of churches and therefore we are relying more heavily on your financial and prayerful support.

Many of you have kindly donated to Catholic Voice and we are most grateful however if you are in a position to send a further donation it would be most appreciated.

You are assured of our ongoing commitment to publish and spread Catholic truth.

Anthony and Kim Murphy HOW TO DONATE: 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 3. Send a cheque or postal order (made payable to Catholic Voice) with the reply coupon to Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, County Kildare, Eire

I/ We would like to donate towards the ongoing publication of Catholic Voice.

Donation enclosed. Please tick box or enter an individual amount

 €10 €25 €100 €250 €500 Other € _________ Name: ________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________ Cheques & postal orders made payable to Catholic Voice Please send your cheque or postal order to Catholic Voice, St. Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy ,Co Kildare

12 LEGISLATING FOR EVIL

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

“In The World You Shall Have Distress: But Have Confidence, I Have Overcome The World.”

Let us continue to pray for our bishops. Once again the people of Dublin & Donegal have been denied access to Jesus Christ in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church and there are threats that this lockdown may be extended to other counties.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen Today I want to sing the praises of two people. One is a lady called Irene who is ninety-one years of age. Irene called me about two months ago to ask me to come to her house to make a presentation on RSE for a group of five people, three of whom have children in Catholic schools. The meeting went very well with one of the parents now deciding to home-school.

Some of the attendees want me to return to make a presentation to other small groups in the area so that more parents can be alerted to the dangers their children face in our Catholic schools.

Irene gives me great hope. I got to know her more than twenty years ago through pro-life work and through a group of parents who were publicly opposing the introduction of the RSE programme when it was first being introduced into our Catholic schools. That she is still actively defending the Catholic Faith is marvellous. I know that she doesn’t want any recognition as she is simply doing what her faith requires of her so I won’t give any more of her details. The good Lord knows of her great service.

I am more than willing to travel throughout Ireland to meet with small groups of parents in private homes so that these parents can be given a clear insight into what is being proposed at a global level for the world’s children. My wife Naomi and I are more than happy to

John Lacken

speak to parents about the joys and challenges of home-schooling and to share the insights we have gained since we began home-schooling in 2005.

The other person I want to praise is a man who lives in Dublin called Séamas de Barra. Séamas is involved with a group called ADFAM - Alliance for the Defence of the Family and Marriage - and he spends much of his time scrutinising, watching and listening to what goes on in the houses of the Oireachtais.

I am on his mailing list so I regularly receive information from Séamas.

Recently he sent me a copy of the Autumn Legislative Programme and also notification that the ‘Objective Sex Education Bill 2018’ has been restored to the Order Paper in Dáil Éireann. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Séamas for what must often be a tedious task. You can contact Séamas by e-mail on info@adfam.ie if you would like to receive correspondence from him through his mailing list.

These recent notifications which I have received clearly show us that we live under a government which has evil intentions for our country and its citizens. I want to highlight just some of what is proposed under the current regime. Most of Ireland’s citizens do not follow what goes on in Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann and I guarantee you that most are not aware of the legislation that is proposed for the current legislative session. It is this ignorance and disinterest which allows successive governments to undermine our democracy and to work to destroy our civilisation.

I will go through the legislation that should be of interest to Catholics from the ‘Legislation Programme Autumn Session 2020’ published by the Office of the Government Chief Whip, Jack Chambers, T.D. on 15th September, 2020, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the order in which they appear on that list.

The first piece of interest comes under Children and Youth Affairs and is

titled ‘Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill’ The purpose of this is “to provide the statutory basis and framework under which Government may decide to authorise interventions at certain sites where manifestly inappropriate burials have taken place associated with institutions operated by or on behalf of the State or in respect of which the State had clear regulatory or supervisory responsibilities”.

Whilst there may be some merit in this bill my guess is that it will be used to further the rumours and disinformation that has been spread about the Mother & Baby Homes of Ireland. These rumours and fake news insinuate that many children were possibly murdered by the religious orders who were taking care of them and the fake story about children being buried in a septic tank in Tuam are still being circulated even though there is no evidence to support this claim.

The Irish government is lying when it claims to have an interest in inappropriate burials. Remember that the HSE on its website tells women who have an abortion at up to eight weeks that “You can decide how to dispose of the pregnancy remains. They can be flushed down the toilet, or wrapped in tissue and disposed of as you wish.”

So the hypocritical Irish government claims to want to intervene where “manifestly inappropriate burials have taken place” whilst advocating flushing small human bodies down the toilet and into sewers and septic tanks.

We live in very evil times.

Under ‘Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht’ there is a bill titled ‘Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill’.

Once again there is merit in this bill however one glaring omission from the general scheme for this bill is that the issue of online pornography is not mentioned in the bill. Cyber bullying is mentioned and this is good, however the spread of online pornography is probably doing more harm to our society. Given that online pornography

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

LEGISLATING FOR EVIL 13

is highly profitable from an ad revenue and taxation point of view and that people like Kate Dawson are promoting ‘porn literacy’ in Catholic secondary schools, it is unlikely that online pornography will be tackled by this bill.

Another difficulty is that this bill could be used to suppress online content which is critical of government policies by deeming it to be dangerous.

We see this happening already with anyone who dares to question the government’s covid-19 narrative in danger of being suppressed or asked to resign from their job.

The next piece of legislation comes from the department of ‘Employment Affairs & Social Protection’ and is called the ‘Adoptive Benefit Bill’.

Its purpose is “To amend the Social Welfare Acts regarding adoptive benefit around entitlement for male same-sex couples”.

This is an evil piece of legislation which furthers the false notion that there is no difference between samesex couples and opposite sex couples and which has no regard for the true welfare of children who are in need of a home.

“Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20) Naturally there are a couple of proposed bills under the Department of Health which are of major concern to Catholics.

The first of those listed is the ‘Assisted Human Reproduction Bill’ which proposes ‘To provide a legislative framework for the regulation of assisted human reproduction practices and associated research’.

When one goes to the general scheme of this bill it lists one of the practices that needs regulation as “embryo and stem cell research” While this section forbids the “creation of an embryo specifically for use in research” it allows for research on ‘surplus’ embryos created through assisted human reproduction. The logic here is that there is no need to create embryonic human beings to be experimented on

for research purposes because of the existence of embryonic human beings in storage facilities where assisted human reproduction is carried out.

person is a person who is still alive.

A deeply comatose person is a person who is still alive

Who would have thought that we would see a day where our government has legislated for innocent human beings to be experimented on in laboratories for ‘research’ purposes. We live in very evil times.

The philosophical rationales, which have been advanced to justify the declaration of death based on the “brain death” protocol, contradict reason as well as the sound tenets of Christian anthropology as taught and held by the Church.

The commodification of the human being continues with the ‘Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Bill’.

The necessary and important details about “brain death” (e.g., that brain dead individuals are still alive and can move) have been carefully kept from the public at large.”

Our government seeks “To deal with organ donation and transplantation in respect of both deceased and living donors, an opt-out system of consent for deceased organ donation, postmortem practices and procedures, anatomical examination/education and training and public display of bodies after death”

Our government is now proposing to introduce evil legislation that, in the event of a person becoming comatose and declared ‘brain dead’, which means that they are still physically alive, their organs will belong to the state unless the person in question has opted out.

This is euphemistically and deceitfully called ‘deemed consent’ and is defined as follows in the scheme for this bill.

Many people do not realise that vital organs used for transplantation, such as the heart, must be taken from a living person. The John Paul II Academy for Human Life & Family issued a declaration on organ donation and ‘brain death’ after their conference on the ethics of organ donation which was held in Rome in May of 2019. The declaration states in part: “Ample medical data have shown the irrefutable evidence that “brain-dead” donors are not dead, but alive. A dying

““deemed consent” means that an adult is presumed to have consented to donate their organs after death if they have not registered their objection to becoming an organ donor on the Organ Donation Opt-Out Register;” This growing practice with regard to consent is deliberately deceitful. Consent is a conscious act of the will and cannot be an act of omission yet, if this bill goes through, those who have not placed themselves on the ‘opt-out’ register for

14 LEGISLATING FOR EVIL

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

organ donation will deceitfully be deemed to have consented to have their organs removed in certain situations when they have done no such thing. Similarly, the World Health Organisation proposes that parents, by placing their children in state funded schools, have ‘implied’ consent to their children being vaccinated.

Another bill on listed on the Autumn session is the ‘National Research Ethics Committees Bill’ which proposes “To reform and modernise the current research ethics committee (REC) framework in Ireland by providing for the establishment of National RECs in key areas of health research” Given that this government has no problem with killing nascent human beings before birth or with having their bodies flushed into the sewerage system, it is clear that they have a faulty understanding of ethics and cannot be trusted to reform any ethical committees.

Next on the list is the ‘Safe Access Bill’ whose purpose is “To ensure safe access to premises at which termination of pregnancy services may be provided”. Our government do not want anyone trying to save the innocent human lives or trying to persuade their mothers that there are alternatives to killing the innocent children that they have permitted to be killed in Irish hospitals. Our tax payer funded ‘health care facilities’ are now being used to murder innocent human beings.

Interestingly, there is also a bill on the Autumn session which proposes to “promote the conservation of biodiversity” in

From 23rd September to 1st November 2020 in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Limerick

We ask for only 1 hour Within the 40 days Be the sign for women to change their minds And for babies’ lives to be saved Please ring or text Kate: 086 732 2192

our raised bogs. This government wants to protect wildlife in our bogs whilst hypocritically killing some and providing for experimentation on other innocent human beings.

Another worrying development is the ‘Hate Crime and Hate Speech Bill’. The purpose of this bill is listed as “To repeal the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, to provide for new and aggravated offences and to provide for a new offence of incitement”.

Catholics should be particularly worried about this new crime of ‘incitement’. Anyone who has seen some of the repugnant and violent police footage from Victoria, Australia, where a pregnant woman was recently forcibly arrested and where police broke down the front door of a man’s home and arrested him, will be concerned. In both of these cases the crime committed was ‘incitement’. How was this crime committed?

Both people posted information about anti lock-down protests on their facebook accounts. The creeping totalitarianism is set to continue in Ireland with it now becoming a crime to peacefully protest against certain government measures.

Earlier this year, there was a great sigh of relief from Catholic parents when the general election was called because it meant that Paul Murphy’s ‘Provision of Objective Sex Education Bill 2018’, which was a direct attack on Catholic schools and parents, was shelved.

However, on Thursday 17th September, 2020, this bill was restored to the order paper for the Dáil and is now set for committee stage. There was no government opposition to this obnoxious bill from the previous government and it is unlikely that there will be any government opposition this time around. Anyone who is interested in this bill should order a copy of Charlotte McQuaid-Bruen’s talk on RSE, details of which are on page 10 of this paper.

Another stark example of government hypocrisy comes in the form of a private member’s bill from Gino Kelly of ‘Solidarity - People Before Profit’ titled the ‘Dying With Dignity Bill 2020’. This is another piece of evil legislation which seeks to allow people to commit suicide with the aid of ‘health care professionals.’

Eamon Ryan of the Green Party has said that there is a real possibility that his party will allow a ‘free conscience’ vote.

Many Fine Gael TDs, at a recent private parliamentary

9th October 2020 meeting of the party, have also called for a free vote to be allowed on this bill. So far there is no government opposition to allowing health care professionals to kill certain people.

What this bill shows us is the utter contempt that many of our politicians, and many in our society have for human life. They only see value in a human life that is economically productive for the state. In this ideological worldview, the unborn, the elderly, the seriously ill and the handicapped are all dispensable and of no inherent value. The only purpose of life in this ideology, is to have pleasure and to be economically productive.

The Catholic world view, which sees the image of Jesus Christ in each and every human being from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, is completely disregarded. On the one hand our government tells us that government health policy is about protecting and promoting health. At the same time our government actively campaigns for legislation which directly attacks human life and they also seek to block those who wish to protest this culture of death.

LEGISLATING FOR EVIL 15

Catholic Voice The final item I want to look at is labelled ‘Amendment of the Constitution (Role of Women) Bill’.

Once again the traditional family is under attack as our government seeks to change our constitution by amending Article 41.2. 1°, which comes under the ‘Family’ section of the constitution.

Article 41.2.1° and 41.2.2° give special protection to mothers who choose to stay at home to care for their families.

They state: 1° “In particular, the state recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.”

2° “ The s t at e s h al l , t h erefo re, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”.

How any one can interpret these provisions as being demeaning to women is beyond me. Are those who object saying that a woman who stays at home gives no benefit to the state?

Are they saying that mothers should not be protected from being forced out to work?

LIBERALISM IS A SIN Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

It is a simple statement of fact to say, that in families where both parents are working, they have less time to spend with their children. Home-schooling parents spend more time again with their children. This is not to say that every family should home-school or that only one parent should go out to work, that is for each family to decide, but those families who wish to have one parent at home or who wish to home-school their children should be given that choice and should not have it effectively taken away by the state.

As Catholics we need to read the very clear signs of our times. Ireland would seem to be a post-Catholic society and Catholic parents will need to be very vigilant and very active in ensuring the Catholic education of their children.

Catholics need to re-discover the importance of marriage and family life and must join forces to promote and protect the Catholic vision of marriage.

As Catholics we are called to be militant and to fight for what we believe in against all those who seek to destroy Christendom. But in the longer term, it is Catholic families who will ultimately shape the course of Irish history and of Irish society. Long Live Christ the King.

CATECHISM

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

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 the age of 71. This book, Liberalism question and answer format is a Sin, is particularly relevant to of the time, in order to make the teachings of the the times we live in today where Liberalism permeates every Encyclical more accessible to ordinary Catholics and aspect of our society and has deeply infiltrated the thinking of by way of explaining in a clear and concise manner the many of the Catholic hierarchy. reasons why the Encyclical was published. years. He died on January 2, 1916 at

Paperback €/£13.50 inc p&p Published by Lumen Fidei Press

Paperback €/£13.50 inc p&p Published by Lumen Fidei Press

To Order please telephone 059 8627268 ROI 00353 598627268 Outside ROI Alternatively, Order Online @ www.lumenfidei.ie/shop

16 THE HOLY ROSARY

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

The Power Of The Rosary Extract from ‘The Knights of St John - Battle of Lepanto published in 1858.

But, more than this, it cannot be doubted that the confidence which filled the heart of St. Pius V had another and a surer foundation. He could not command the arms of Europe, but the prayers of Christendom at least were at his disposal. Up from every church in every country that owned his obedience there had been arising for months a swell of fervent and united supplication. The religious order to which he himself belonged had been foremost in the use of this great weapon of intercession; and every Confraternity of the Rosary throughout Europe attached to the Dominican body had been unwearied in their processions and devotions for the success of the Christian arms.

How strong a feeling had been excited by the efforts of the Pope may be judged by one fact: it was the period of socalled reformation, when throughout a vast portion of Europe the devout practices of former ages were sinking into contempt; and yet we are told Loretto had never seen such a year of pilgrimage. Every road to the Holy House was crowded by devotees of all nations; and all crowded thither with but one object — to place the cause of the Christians under the patronage of Mary....

crimson folds of the consecrated banner, to which a blessed rosary was affixed, were displayed aloft on the royal vessel, and the signal gun gave notice for all to fall into position, loud acclamations burst from every part of the Christian host in token of their enthusiastic joy.

The Turkish fleet consisted of upwards of 400 vessels of all sizes,” manned by not fewer than 120,000 men; in strength, therefore, the Moslems far surpassed the Christians, and they had the prestige of their late conquests in their favour. As the fleets were still distant, the interval was spent by the leaders of both parties in encouraging their followers and preparing for hostilities.

Some of the Spanish generals, who still doubted the prudence of provoking the contest, appeared on board the royal galley to learn the final decision of the prince.

They received it in a few words: “Gentlemen,” he replied, “you mistake; this is not the time for council, but for combat;” and turning from them, he continued issuing his orders.

Then, taking a small and swift galley, he went the rounds of the fleet, animating their crews with a few of those brief and heroic phrases which fall with such powerful effect from the lips of a great commander.

He had an appropriate word for all. The Venetians he reminded of their injuries, and of the slaughter of Famagosta. Sebastian Veniero, “on the morning of the 7th of whose irritable and stubborn temper October, a little before daybreak, had, at the first departure from Don John, defying the opposition of Messina, betrayed him into excesses the elements, and as though impelled by which banished him from the prince’s an irresistible power, to the astonishment council, still bore himself morose and of all gave the signal to weigh anchor.” It sullen under his disgrace; but the judicious was obeyed; and labouring against the contrary and courteous kindness of Don wind, the vessels began to Fresco (1739) - Mary Assumption Parish Church, Bavaria John so won upon him, that he make their slow and difficult laid aside his angry feelings Pope Pius V Praying For Victory way, tossed and beaten by the and distinguished himself waves, as the morning light was breaking over the in the subsequent battle among the most valiant and horizon. Just as the sun rose over the glorious coast of devoted of the combatants. #. address to the Spaniards that island-group, anciently known as the Echinades, has been preserved: the watchman on board the prince’s galley made signal of a sail.

“My children,” he said, we have come here to die—to conquer, if Heaven so disposes. Give not occasion to It was quickly repeated by the lookers-out in Doria’s the enemy to say with impious arrogance, ‘Where is squadron, and many who eagerly ascended the rigging now your God?” Fight, then, in His holy name; fallen, plainly discerned not one sail alone, but, like so many a victorious immortality will be yours!” dark specks on the flashing surface of the western sea, the distant array of the whole Turkish fleet. A battle And now might be seen other galleys passing from was therefore felt to be close at hand; and whilst the vessel to vessel on a different mission. These conveyed

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO 17

The Battle Of Lepanto the religious appointed to attend the armada by the Pope, who went through every squadron publishing the indulgence granted by his Holiness, hearing the confessions of the soldiers, and preparing all for death.

Their labours were crowned with abundant fruit.

So soon as the prince had returned to his vessel the signal throughout the squadrons was given for prayer; all the soldiers, fully armed for the combat, fell upon their knees, the crucifix was upraised on the deck of every vessel, and for some minutes, as the two hosts drew rapidly nearer to each other, every man on board the Christian fleet was engaged in humbly imploring the Divine blessing on its arms....

The Turkish Commander Ali Pashi is killed.

The event of the battle after this was no longer doubtful; Don John with his own hands pulled down the Turkish flag, and shouted, “Victory !”, whilst Santa Cruz, profiting by the confusion, pushed forward with the reserve, and completed the discomfiture of the foe. At this critical moment the corsair Ouloudj Ali, seeing that the whole Turkish centre was broken, and the day irretrievably lost, hoisted all sail, and with forty galleys, the only vessels that escaped out of that bloody battle passed safely through the midst of the Christian fleet....

fro through the long suites of rooms in the pontifical palace, in conversation with some of the cardinals and Baffotti, the treasurer, on various matters of business.

Suddenly he stopped as if listening to a distant sound, then, leaving his companions, he approached one of the windows, and threw it open; whilst those who watched his movements observed that his eyes were raised to heaven with the expression of one in ecstasy.

They themselves also listened, but were unable to catch the faintest sound that could account for his singular behaviour; and whilst they gazed at one another in astonishment, unable to comprehend the scene, Pope Pius (says his biographer Maffei), “whose eyes had been fixed upwards for a good space, shutting the window again, and seemingly full of great things, turned graciously to the treasurer, and said, ‘This is no time for business; let us go and give God thanks, for our fleet has fought with the Turks, and in this very hour has conquered.’ He knelt down as he spoke, and gave thanks to God with great fervour; then taking a pen, he wrote down the day and the hour: it was the decisive moment at which the battle had turned in favour of the Christians.”

The actual intelligence of the victory did not reach Rome until the 21st of October, owing to contrary winds which delayed It only remains for us to speak of the couriers of Colonna; so that the manner in which the news of the first news was brought by a the success of the Christian arms messenger from the republic of was received by those who were Venice. It was night when he arrived; so anxiously awaiting the result of but when word was brought to the holy the expedition at the courts of Rome father of the happy realisation of his and Madrid. Pope Pius V., who may be hopes and of the Divine assurance he had considered as the originator received, he sprang from his Sister Doctor Deirdre Byrne Brndishes Her Rosary of the whole enterprise, had, bed, and bursting into tears, from the first departure of the ‘The Weapon Of Choice’ At The Trump Convention exclaimed, “There was a man fleet, ordered continual fasts sent from God, whose name and prayers for its success. was John;” then, hurrying to his private chapel, he summoned all his attendants and officers to meet him On the memorable 7th of October on which the battle there, to offer their thanksgivings for the great event. A took place, and which fell that year on a Sunday, all more solemn function was performed on the following the confraternities of the Rosary had assembled in morning in the Basilica of the Apostles, and none of the Dominican church of the Minerva to offer their those who had joined in the previous and reiterated devotions for victory under the intercession of Mary. prayers by which the patronage of Mary had been invoked on the Christian arms, failed to ascribe the All Rome was in prayer that day, and her prayer was success which had been granted, to the power of her the Ave Maria. The Pope himself had attended the intercession, especially as invoked in the holy devotion procession; and on returning to the Vatican after the of the Rosary, under whose banner, as it were, the battle conclusion of the ceremony, he was walking to and had been fought and won.

18 CATHOLIC VANDALISM

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

Bare Ruined Choirs – A Cardinal’s Vandalism Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

The finest cathedral choir in the Catholic world is arguably not at St Peter’s, where – to put it charitably – the choral tradition has never been of the strongest. It is at the longuncompleted Byzantinist cathedral of Westminster, the soffits of whose vast, resonant vaults were originally to have been covered in glittering mosaics. But the money ran out, and the vaults remain unfinished and grimy. Except for one thing, going to Mass there feels more than somewhat like worshipping in a railway station.

That one thing is a wonder of the world – the Westminster Cathedral C h o i r, f o u n d e d b y C a r d i n a l Vaughan in 1903. I make no apology for writing about a London choir for an Irish audience, for the Westminster Cathedral Choir is not a national but a global treasure.

If you want to be transported straight to heaven, listen to the Choir on YouTube. But there was trouble at the mill. In recent years, connoisseurs had noticed that the standard of choral singing, though still high, was not quite as superlative as it had been.

Last winter, Martin Baker, the admirable director of music, resigned after twenty years’ distinguished service. A few days ago Madeline Smith, the music administrator, also resigned. And, in her devastating letter of resignation, she reveals what has been going on behind the reredos – years of

malign interference and neglect by the cathedral authorities and the headmaster of the choir school.

In that letter, circulating like a Californian wildfire in Catholic circles, she brings the following charges, which reveal a vicious campaign of ecclesiastical and musical vandalism – ¾ The position in which the Music Department finds itself is “untenable” and has been for quite a while, because “there is sadly an underlying lack of support from the Cathedral hierarchy and the choir school”. ¾ The trouble began 13 years ago with “a slow but sure undermining and side-lining of the choristers by the headmaster of the choir school”. ¾ A widely-publicised and fullyfunded USA tour was cancelled by the choir school at the last minute in 2018. ¾ “None of the choristers has ever experienced an international tour, which is promised in the school’s application material.” ¾ The choir’s annual contract to produce CDs was allowed to lapse. ¾ The regular July recording week was cancelled in 2016. ¾ Even before the Chinese-virus pandemic, full-scale public concerts had been discontinued because in March 2019 the Cardinal had decided to replace full-time with weekly boarding for the 20 boy choristers,

¾

¾

¾ ¾

¾

¾

¾ ¾ Westminster Cathedral Choir 2017 With Former Director Martin Baker

causing the immediate loss of four choristers, with three more leaving after the lock-down, and doing “fundamental damage”.

The deputy Master of Music – for whom Madeline Smith expresses “the utmost respect” – is having to run the Choir School on his own because after more than nine months no new Master of Music has been appointed – the longest vacancy in the century of the Choir’s existence.

The two other London choirs that board their choristers – Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s – have not ended permanent boarding: indeed, St Paul’s has spent millions on new buildings to accommodate the choristers-in-residence. But the Cathedral consulted neither of these choirs before ending full-time boarding.

The problem was not financial – a benefactor had agreed to meet the cost of maintaining fulltime boarding, but was rejected.

Martin Baker, the Director of Music, had resigned after “undue pressure” from the Cathedral authorities. His departure, after “years of inexcusable behaviour by the management of the school”, had gone “unremarked and unthanked” by those authorities, and that was “in itself a total disgrace”.

Cardinal Nicholls had failed to support his Director of Music.

Instead, he told him to “keep quiet” and say nothing about the damage being caused to the choir’s standard of singing, and even to its availability, by the ending of full-time boarding.

Parents who had spoken out about the changes were threatened that their sons’ places at the school would be taken away if they persisted.

The Cardinal had ordered a “strategic review” of the changes, but only after they had been implemented.

The Cathedral authorities had displayed “bullying and threatening behaviour towards Music Department staff”.

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

CATHOLIC VANDALISM 19

Tympanum of Westminster Cathedral, London, England - (Photo Bernard Gagnon - wikimedia creative commons)

That is quite a rap-sheet. But when Damien Thompson of The Spectator, through whom I came upon this sorry tale, asked the Cathedral to comment they did not return his call.

Cardinal Nicholls was appointed because, as an ecclesiastical bureaucrat, he was regarded at the Holy See as a safe pair of hands. Well, he had better turn those hands to some urgent fence-mending.

He should approach his former Director of Music and his former Music Administrator, apologise handsomely to them, and beg them to return to their posts. He should empower them to restore full-time boarding, taking full advantage of the rejected benefactor’s generosity, and ensure that enough choristers to bring the choir up to full strength are recruited at once.

He should ensure that the respective roles of Director of Music and Headmaster of the Choir School are more clearly defined, and establish a clear chain of command, with proper dispute resolution.

He should encourage the Music Department to reactivate the recording contract and to organise concerts and international tours, which could be big revenue-earners.

We love our Bishops dearly, but of late they seem to have settled into a habit that was endemic in the British civil service and which was encapsulated in a senior civil servant’s description of officialdom’s postwar role – “the peaceful management of decline”. Snap out of it, Cardinal! Remember Pentecost.

The Medal

Associated with “Divine Inspirations” This is the description which Our Lady gave of this medal: FRONT OF MEDAL: The two Hearts with the inscription ‘The Immaculate Conception and the Sacred Heart of Jesus unite the world’

BACK OF MEDAL: Jesus of Mercy with the inscription ‘Jesus the Light of the world. He who believes in Me will never die’ Our Lady said: “I will personally bless anyone who wears this medal, It is a sign of my love” 4th VOLUME OF GERALDINE’S BOOK AVAILABLE NOW

Available from Michael Scahill, Magillstown, Swords, Co Dublin Tel: 01 8401590 Email: michaelscahill@gmail.com

20 HELPING THE MISSIONS

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

Thank You Catholic Voice!

Mary Kearns Earlier this year Catholic Voice published an article highlighting the plight of impoverished parishes in several of the African countries.

A plea was made for donations of liturgical items, priests’ vestments and above all Mass Kits. The readers of this paper responded very generously with requests to sponsor individual kits and with donations of money.

The Apostolic Society was then able to send the necessary objects and these were received with gratitude. The team of lay people under the direction of Mrs Mary O’Reilly are volunteers who work to put together what is known as Mass Kits. These are boxes containing everything needed for the celebration of Mass - a full set of vestments, altar linens, pyx and sacred vessels. The members of the Apostolic Society sew all that is needed, using a sewing machine, while some people crochet cinctures, others make rosaries, and some hand-sew altar linens.

Sacred vessels and other liturgical items are purchased with donations received. The neat Mass Box itself can be used as an altar if required, for example by missionary priests serving in bush country.

As a result of receiving these priceless gifts, a warm thank-you was sent from many of the parishes in Africa. The following are a few testimonials.

“I am Silvio Fred Jalar, a lay person from Paidha Catholic Parish, Nebbi Catholic Diocese, Uganda. I must thank the people of Ireland for their goodwill and generosity in helping poor parishes in Uganda and my parish in particular with vestments, ciborium, chalice, thurible, Monstrance etc. This has made Mass

Young Mill Hill priests at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. celebrations for our priests much easier as they do not have to borrow from neighbouring parishes.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been made possible as well as visiting of the sick and the elderly.

Bishops do not supply us with liturgical vessels and vestments.

They expect parishioners to contribute for their purchase. Many parishes in Uganda are unable to afford Mass Kits and Monstrances due to their high costs as a result of heavy taxation. The Christians, many of whom survive on a meal a day, are unable to pay tithes or give offerings at Mass to meet the cost of church requirements.”

“Today I was in Bamenda and I picked up the parcel you sent, thank you very much for these wonderful Sacramentals that will help the people of Ilung Parish and Konene Out-Station in particular.”

From Fred Silvio, school inspector in north west Uganda. His PP received vessels, vestments and a Monstrance. They are now building

an Adoration Chapel beside the main parish church where the Monstrance will be used.

Ugandan priest Fr. Matthias Jjooga, now working in an Irish parish, recalls the words of Pope Paul VI spoken to the Church in Uganda on his visit there in 1969: “By now, you Africans are missionaries to yourselves…An immense task awaits your pastoral efforts, in particular, the work of training those Christians called to the apostolate – the clergy, the men and women Religious, the catechists, the active lay men and women. For, on the training and preparation of these local elements, these choice workers of the people of God, will depend the vitality, the development and the future of the African Church.”

Fr. Matthias draws on the above homily of the Pontiff and explains that “these words have continuously motivated and will continue to drive the leadership of

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

the Catholic Church in Africa in its efforts to make the local churches self-sustaining. I would confidently assert that there are vivid results in the local churches that can be attributed to the efforts put in by the bishops to respond to the Holy Father’s appeal. For instance, there has been a growing number of priests, religious, catechists and well trained lay men and women fully involved in the apostolate.

Challenges have been encountered along the way! Big thanks to the different donors who for a long time have greatly contributed towards building the local churches.

In Uganda, the very place where Pope Paul VI pronounced the above motivating words, thanks be to God the number of Catholics continues to grow. This is evidenced by the new parishes that continue to be opened up. Every year big numbers of people celebrating the Sacraments of Baptism, First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders among other Sacraments are registered.

As an example, it is not uncommon for one priest to baptise more than 10 babies every Sunday per outstation, depending on one’s ability to organize Masses in the outstations of a main parish! There are parishes with more than twenty outstations!

We also thank God, every year that different Religious Orders receive a good number of members taking their first and perpetual vows!

There is an increase in people’s commitment to different spiritual activities: devotions (Legion of Mary, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, Padre Pio, etc..) and pilgrimages. The annual pilgrimage to Namugongo on 3rd June, the martyrdom site of the Uganda martyrs continues to overwhelm the organizers. The recent pilgrimage in 2019, is reported to have attracted

HELPING THE MISSIONS 21

more than three million pilgrims from within and outside Uganda!”

Priests and lay catechists are doing their best with limited resources but the price of liturgical objects is prohibitive. Fr. Godfrey Ocamringa from the Nebbi district in northwestern Uganda claimed that the price of liturgical vessels is beyond what parishes can afford. With just one shop in the capital city Kampala stocking them, government taxes make the prices exorbitant. For example, a monstrance purchased in Italy costs 350 euros while in Uganda the same monstrance costs the equivalent of 1500 euros.

Those who are interested in donating or contributing to providing liturgical vessels and other items may do so by getting in touch with the Apostolic Work Ministry where it is possible for 350 euro, to purchase a full Mass Box. The cost of buying a monstrance including postage is 450 euro.

These Mass Boxes are then sent to priests on the missions who pray daily during Mass for the donors and their loved ones. This is an excellent means of offering Mass

Holy Mass Kit - Photo Fr Innocent Akum

for the return to the Church of those who no longer practise the Faith as the chalice and ciborium will have the names requested inscribed on them.

Further information made be had from Mrs. Mary O’Reilly who always welcomes volunteers to help with this essential work. (01) 833 8556 / 086 889 1236 For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@ gmail.com 087 7794687

Large Ciborium donated to the Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs in Uganda, being received by Bishop Paul Ssemogerere.

22 COMING HOME

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

Lough Derg - The Devil - God - And The Rosary Patricia Gonҫalves

The following story comes to us from a young Irish woman and it shows the power of prayerful Catholic witness to change hearts.

The sister Patricia mentions in her story, attended a Lumen Fidei Institute conference on education and is now happily home-schooling her children. Patricia first got in touch with us through our Lumen Fidei website where she said “What I love most about Lumen Fidei, is the truth to the hard hitting topics we are faced with. You are the only institute or organisation or body that I have come across that is speaking the truth unapologetically.

It’s refreshing” Your support for Catholic Voice and The Lumen Fidei Institute helps us to reach more people like Patricia who are seeking the eternal Truths of our beloved Catholic Church.

Thank you for your ongoing support

St Patrick’s Purgatory - Lough Derg - (Photo Andreas F. Borchert - Creative Commons)

person turns back on themselves and the soul darkens. Modern day anxiety is one of those signs. This is exactly what happened to me.

Fulton Sheen describes very well the problem modern man faces. In one of his books, he explains how man in days gone by would view the world in a 3-dimensional way, the 3 dimensions being Heaven, Earth and Hell. In those days man would see the exit of our life on earth as being to Heaven or to Hell, and so they would typically aspire to Heaven and life would be geared towards getting there. As a result of the culture and society we now find ourselves in, he explains how modern man now lives in a single dimensional world: Earth.

I will briefly try to paint a picture of myself to give an idea of where I came from. In 2017 I was 24 with a 1 year old daughter and living with my boyfriend of 5 years. I grew up with a very active lifestyle having played football my whole life, and when I started working in Dublin, I took to the gym and running. I was also working in a big 4 accountancy firm, doing my accountancy exams and aspired to being a partner there one day. I’ve no doubt that I could have achieved it as I was competitive, career focused and very determined.

In this view, man places all hope in the world and what it has to offer.

The analogy he uses to explain the effect this has on the soul is ‘water’, and what happens to water when it is faced with a brick wall. The water will turn back on itself and become stagnant. Silt and dirt will begin to build up. He says, this is the same with the human soul, when it’s not looking to something greater, the

I’m the youngest of 6 children and my parents were two of the hardest working people I know, my dad was always very strict and we were well disciplined, however, as all teenagers do, we did push the boundaries and tested the waters growing up especially when we left home. I remember going to Mass until I was 4 or 5, but we then stopped going to Mass, and we had no formation in the faith at home.

Fast forward to December 2017, I had a panic attack in the center of Sao Paulo. Brazil, where I ended up in a hospital as there was no shaking it off. I didn’t dwell too much on it and thought it may have been caused by the fact that I felt unsafe in that city. However, when I returned home, the dark cloud swooped in and I found myself in the grip of a storm that was not passing. Anxiety and panic attacks became a normal occurrence, and there was no explanation for it.

I was depressed and shut myself off from the people around me.

I ended up in my local GP who prescribed two different medicines, and for the first few return visits my dosage was being increased. I started counselling and had been to 2 counsellors before I found a so called “renowned” counsellor who only accepts a certain amount of clients at a time. I was told that I was lucky to have been accepted when I reached out to her the first time. I found no help from the sessions though, and it came to the point when she was planning on starting mindfulness.

Meanwhile, my best friend was, and still is my sister who had found

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

her faith a few years before me through the example of her husband and his family. She would often talk to me about the faith and tell me in amazement different aspects of our faith, on one occasion she explained how the Lord is truly present in body and soul on the altar at the sacrifice of the Mass. When I heard this I remember thinking “she’s completely mad”. Sadly it was all in one ear and out the other. This is how I know that simply telling people to change their ways or telling people the truth of our faith may not work on its own, it’s only by the grace of God that He allows this information to be really heard and understood.

This sister could see what was at play in my life and although I did my best to avoid her, she made an extra effort to be there for me. One day she suggested I get a break away for myself and ironically she suggested that I go to Lough Derg for that break.

For those of you who know Lough Derg, it’s far from a break in terms

of the mental, physical and spiritual effort required, and my resounding response of “yes” to this day still amazes me. I had been to Lough Derg a few years prior so I knew what it was and what was required.

However, unlike the first time I went, this time I willingly went knowing what was in store for me.

This was May of 2018.

I went with my sister’s mother-inlaw whom I love. She’s a woman who has great peace and great answers to life’s troubles. I was always drawn to her. In the car on the way she explained how the devil was at work in the recent abortion referendum, and I just remember stopping her and asking “the devil, whatever do you mean?”, as in, is he not a mystical non-existent thing of fairytales?

She explained very eloquently that no he is real, and God does exist.

This was my first encounter with the acknowledgement of the existence of evil. Therefore there was no better time for us to arrive at Lough Derg

COMING HOME 23 than having just acknowledged this, because for the first time I chose to also acknowledge the existence of God, and I turned to him in a big way by doing the pilgrimage.

I turned to God on that pilgrimage and he gave me his hand. I fought the urge to leave after one night. I watched the crowd who arrived one day before me queue for the boat, and I went as far as getting the bus timetable from reception to make my own way home from Donegal.

I was almost in tears as I fought the urge to leave.

I have one vivid memory of leaving Lough Derg, as I’m sure everyone does for obvious reasons, however I think my sister’s mother-in-Law was wondering if she had the wrong person in the car on the way home because I was visibly a different person to the one who accompanied her on the way.

I was deeply touched in a way I can’t put into words, I did not know what was going on at the time but I

24 COMING HOME

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

felt deep in my soul something good was happening and I was filled with hope and the love of God. At this stage of my journey, I didn’t know any of the fundamental basics of our faith, I literally knew nothing.

This is a truly amazing sign of the existence and mercy of the Lord.

None of what was going on at the time was apparent to me until a long time later when I look back and see what was at play and the fact that none of it was coincidence, the Lord works tremendous miracles.

When I say I knew nothing of the fundamentals of our faith, I really knew nothing. I did not know who the 3 persons of the Trinity were; I did not know what the Mass was about; I did not know about the Real Presence. I knew nothing about Our Lady. Yet, as time passed, I found the answers to my questions in miraculous ways. I would pick up a book at the back of the church, or an extra free leaflet or magazine from an online order, or even through divine revelation, I was growing in faith and understanding each passing day. The more sin I removed from my life, and prayers offered, the more I grew in faith and understanding. There are some sins that were harder to remove than others. Prayer and fasting helped but even that didn’t always do the trick, but remarkably, I found confession and humility in confession to be the

answer for those hard to remove sins.

I laugh as I remember my initial reaction to being told confession was on the agenda in Lough Derg, I remember thinking “is this not a thing of the past?”, it’s an absolute treasure, and how lucky we are to have the Divine Physician waiting for us to go to visit him there to heal all our brokenness.

When I returned from Lough Derg and when I began to practice my faith, I was faced with belittling comments from my boyfriend. The condemnation was difficult, yet, I persevered in going to Mass.

This was the only way I knew how to show God I trusted Him. I developed a daily devotion to the Stations of the Cross. I often thought of our Lord hanging on the cross whenever I despaired at the difficulties I faced, and how petty my struggles paled in comparison.

Then, I began to wonder what the rosary was, and started praying it after buying a small book on how to pray it. Things then began to get quite turbulent at home, I remember ringing my sister in despair on a few occasions, not being able to cope with the struggles. She said “Offer it up, you will get through it. Respond with love and offer it up”. I had no idea what “offer it up” meant, but I hated hearing it.

I didn’t ignore the advice though, and would remain silent with gritted teeth when situations arose that would normally lead to friction. The rosary was the stepping stone to so many more wonderful devotions and steps in my journey.

There is quite a bit I’ve brushed through in order to tell you my story, and I’ve shared the main highlights. There were some key stepping stones to my journey along the way. First and foremost it was the acknowledgement of God’s existence, and me turning to Him in trust. By saying “yes” to doing a pilgrimage, it opens the door wide for God to intervene and that’s where the real revelation is.

Everything after that is in the hands of the Lord, with little effort on my part, he lovingly and mercifully brought me closer to him.

By the grace of God, I married my husband this year at the peak of the pandemic, and although our views on some matters differ quite a bit, he went from belittling and condemning my new-found faith, to now praying the rosary daily and wearing a miraculous medal.

Our Lady is never subtle when she’s playing a role in our lives.

Sometimes it’s the example of others around you that opens the eyes of others to want a little bit of that peace that only true faith and trust in the Lord can bring.

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

CATHOLICS MUST FIGHT 25

We Are Losing The Battle For Souls Because We Are Choosing Not To Fight Fr Richard Heilman

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I see we are losing the battle for souls because we are choosing not to fight. Whether it had been rumbling for ten years or one hundred years or one thousand years, the volcanic eruption of a far left secular liberalism with its pacifist ideology occurred in the 1960s, in the culture and in our Church.

For these past 50+ years, the calculation has been that we only need to be nice, and that this niceness alone will soothe the savage beast. The notion is that evil people will somehow be intoxicated by our niceness, and they will set aside all of their evil ambitions and, somehow, “see the light.”

Therefore, we must suppress, or be silent about truths that threaten to antagonise those who remain oblivious to these truths; truths that are causing harm to themselves and others. The greatest sin, therefore, is intolerance.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos.

Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.”

This “niceness” calculation has been an abysmal failure. Now, we see in the world how evil smirks in our pacifist direction as it continues its ambitions of terror and conquest, literally, unabated. Our political leaders are shaking their heads; incredulous as to why evil is not converted by our niceness. In our Church, we are told to remain silent on some of the most horrific evils in

the history of civilisation, beginning with the dreadful slaughter of 50 million innocent children every year.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once again pulls no punches: “A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it.”

Equally incredulous are our Church leaders. They simply cannot understand why there are an alarming number of folks staying away from church. “Aren’t we nice enough?” Add to this the steady increases seen in churches where they actually speak the truth and are unafraid to draw attention to the Four Last Things. “Why would they choose this over our niceness?”

Why? Because people understand we are called to fight!!

“Love fights,” says Dr. Peter Kreeft “...And, therefore, there is in Sacred Scripture something very clearly called the wrath of God. God hates all enemies of love, as the doctor

hates the cancer that is killing his beloved patient. If you really love a human being, you will hate all of the dehumanising forces that are harmful to that human being.”

Folks are going to churches where they feel they are “truly” loved. Not those places trying to increase their attendance by entertaining them and placating them. What’s a bad parent? It’s the one who wants to be the child’s friend rather than their parent, to satisfy their selfish need to “be loved.”

A bad parent will let that child run wild, as long as the child “likes them.” A good parent; a truly “loving parent” wants the “best” for that child, even if it means coming down hard on the child, when necessary. The child of the bad parent, ultimately, ends up using the parent. The child of the good parent, ultimately, understands that the parent has their best interests at heart, and they are truly loved.

It’s time for our leaders to shift gears. It’s time for our leaders to be “good parents.”

26 THAT THEY MAY BE ONE

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

That They May Be One - 17th Sunday After Pentecost Dom Pius Mary Noonan

At the heart of today’s liturgy we are given to contemplate the battle that rages between God and Satan, between Love and Hatred, between Unity and Division. The very source of unity is to be found in our Blessed Lord Himself, as St Paul stresses to the Ephesians: There is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

Of course there would be, because there is only one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ. God is not a scoundrel to have taken several wives and fathered illegitimate children. No, the unity of God moves Him to found a Church which is the source of unity in this life before we are admitted to the eternal communion of God and the elect in Heaven. In reality, there is only one Family of God, part of which is fighting the good fight of faith here below, part of which is already enjoying the vision of God in Heaven, and part of which is still in purification in Purgatory.

We who have the true faith are all of the same household, with the same Father, and that makes us all brothers and sisters of God’s family.

All other members of the human race are called to that same unity, even if they have not yet attained to it.

It is an extraordinary honour God has given us in calling us to be part

ACCOMMODATION WANTED Mature single and retired lady - non smoker - seeks accommodation.

Non driver so requires to be on bus route or near services Telephone: 0864019508

Archbishop Porteous of Hobart, Tasmania with the community of Notre Dame Priory

of His Family, and this honour, this title of nobility, has its price and its demands. The most important debt we have to God and to all those He calls His children is the debt of love. In today’s Gospel, our Blessed Lord, questioned by one of the scribes as to the greatest commandment of the Law, does not hesitate: The commandment to love takes precedence over all others, for it inspires and grounds all others.

We must love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, all our powers. There is nothing in us that is permitted to not be turned entirely towards the love of our God.

constrained to admit that we can give Him nothing, and that any good thing we might want for Him He already has? If this is so, why are we commanded to love?

But what is it to love God? What is it to love? To love is to choose someone and to want good for that person that we love. To love is to hold someone in such affection that we desire and will do all in our power to obtain what is good for them, even at our own cost. But the question arises: how can we want what is good for God? How can we do good to God, when God is goodness itself, lacking nothing of all that is good? Are we not

In other words, if we love God, we should exert ourselves continually in embracing His every will. That is why we say in the Our Father: Thy Will be done. We want His will to be done because we love Him, and we know that if it is done, then so many more people will be brought to His love, for God wants all of them to be part of His family.

The commandment, for sure, is not for God; it is for us. It is good for us to love God and to want what is good for Him. St Elizabeth of the Trinity gives us another reason. She says that a soul that dwells in God, with pure, disinterested love, wishes well to God by accomplishing His will. Such a soul surrenders itself entirely, blindly, to this will so that it cannot possibly wish anything but what God wishes.

But let’s return to St Paul. His insistence is striking:

9th October 2020

Catholic Voice

I beseech you… with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

When we reflect upon the Apostle’s theology, we can see that, far from being a purely utilitarian concept of superficial unity as might be seen for example in the players on a team or colleagues at work. For these, concerted efforts have a precise, functional goal. Once it is achieved, there is no longer a need for unity, and the unity itself is only partial, concerning one area of their lives. Players on the same team do not necessarily have any particular love for each other.

For St Paul on the contrary, our unity stems from the very unity of God. There is one God, and there are Three Divine Persons who share in that one divine essence. The Church of the faithful mirrors the life of God. This is what inspired St Cyprian to say that the Church is the “plebs de unitate Trinitatis adunata – the people brought together in one by the unity of the Trinity”. In other words, the very source of the Church is the unity of God, and therefore the faith will always tend to unite. Throughout the centuries, it seeks to englobe all of humanity in the divine unity, bringing all to partake of the life of God given to us through the Incarnation.

This is why in today’s Gospel, after replying to His questioner about the great commandment of love, the Lord Himself becomes the questioner and, in words that left all of the hearers mystified, pointed to the Incarnation. The Messiah is the Son of David in the flesh, but He is the Lord of David in the Spirit, for He is God Himself. The unity of the divinity and the humanity of Christ in the Person of the Eternal Word, like the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, are what makes it possible for us to achieve real and lasting unity, over and beyond legitimate approaches to many things. If we are united in the one faith, if we have in our hearts the love of God Himself, then we can only tend more and more towards being one in Christ.

There are of course dangers and obstacles to the unity of God’s family. In particular there are what today’s oration calls the “diabolical contagion”, expression which englobes all the Enemy’s efforts to keep us from going to God: temptation to sin, the darkness he seeks to spread over our minds and hearts, the webs he seeks to weave around us without our even knowing it, the distractions at prayer, words that hurt and sow discord, etc. The contagion of the devil is the exact opposite of what God’s service should do. Since the love of God unites all His children, the devil sows division, separation.

What is the remedy? First of all, never use the tactics of the enemy. Never accept to walk along the path of discord, division, hurt, slander.… When we are

THAT THEY MAY BE ONE 27 tempted to hatred, when we want to fight back, we need to remind ourselves of the precept of love and practice all the virtues, especially the ones the apostle mentions today: humility, meekness, patience. “Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers” (Origen).

Unity is not an option. It is the will of Christ. In His sacerdotal prayer in John 17, five times in just a few lines, Our Lord asks the Father to give unity to His disciples: Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou hast given me: that they may be one, as we also are… And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them: that, they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me (Jn 17:11, 21-23).

Clearly, we have our task cut out for us. Our job is to live in communion with God, not to offend Him by sin, either directly or against our neighbour. In an age for which the individual is autonomous, and therefore personal interests frequently clash, it is the duty of all those who believe in Christ to avoid anything that hurts, that divides. The Church is wounded enough today for us not to add to those wounds by the bitterness of words that can only hurt. We will do well to employ the filter of Socrates. When someone is about to tell you something and you have reason to suspect it’s detraction, you should ask, 1) is it true? 2) is it good?

3) is it useful? If it’s not all three, don’t listen to it.

Let us never forget the unique sign the Lord gave that we would be His disciples: In this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

In our fight against the diabolical contagion, let us avail ourselves of the help of the holy angels. This week we will honour St Michael on Tuesday and the Holy Guardian Angels on Friday. Let us become familiar with them and speak frequently to them, asking their aid at all times.

Let us pray, with the Prophet Daniel that the face of Our Lord may once again shine upon His Sanctuary, the Holy Church, dissipating the darkness of sin and error, and that She in turn may enlighten all nations and show the way to the eternal home.

Dom Pius Mary Noonan is the Prior of the recently founded ‘Notre Dame Priory’ - dedicated to Our Lady of Cana - a Traditional Benedictine Monastery in Tasmania. Website: www.notredamemonastery.org

28 OVERCOMING EVIL

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

Overcome Evil with Good: The Temptations of Our Time and the Spirit of Christ Sam Guzman

A glance at the news headlines gives the very real impression that the world is in flames. Who can deny that we are in a tremendous state of turmoil, reeling from one crisis only to enter another one?

The Temptations We Face The first temptation we face is that of the twin emotions of fear and anger.

These two vices are closely related, but they are both equally inimical to the spiritual life.

Moreover, we can become quickly addicted to a state of outrage. I have seen Catholics countless times using Jesus cleansing the temple as an excuse to indulge in the adrenaline-fueled high of anger.

Anger, however, is inherently destructive, never constructive. At times, righteous anger is justified in defence of the good, but it is always inherently dangerous unless we have reached a very high spiritual purification — which truth be told, Mass media thrives on spreading most of us have not. fear. Fear drives clicks, it draws viewers, which means more ad St. James tells us that wars, fighting revenue for media corporations. amongst ourselves, and destruction Images of morgues or men in hazmat are usually the result of our lusts, suits fighting an invisible virus are our sinful passions raging within terrifying. Likewise, images of us like jealousy, envy, and pride burning buildings, rioters smashing (James 4:1-4). We are told to be and looting, and police violently angry and sin not, but this state is arresting people, played in an difficult to attain, and again, we are endless loop and plastered over our often deceived into believing we social media feeds, inspires intense aren’t sinning when we are. Anger anxiety. is a fire that can consume and destroy. We must be tremendously As a result, fear is a tremendous careful with it or we will be easily temptation. When we are afraid, our overcome and swept away by it. primary concern is survival. In other words, we become less rational, The next temptation we face, living not so much by virtuous closely related to the previous, is ideals or moral principles, but by that of hatred. When we are angry sheer animal instinct. At a spiritual and afraid, we look for an enemy level, we cease to live by Christ’s to blame, a scapegoat on which to commandments and surrender to place responsibility for the sins of the law of physical survival alone, the world. That inevitably becomes which is inherently violent. anyone who is not like us, anyone who is different.

Anger, as I have said, is closely But inevitably, when we associate related to fear. It is what drives us a specific group with responsibility to destroy and kill, if not physically, for the evils of the world, we begin then with our thoughts and words. to hate that group as much as we It is the same spirit that drove the hate the evils they are supposedly disciples to want to call down fire responsible for. We begin to vent from heaven on those who were our rage at them, killing them if not opposed to them, a desire which physically, at least in our thoughts Jesus soundly rebuked (Luke 9:51- and words.

55).

Christ said, “The [devil] comes The danger of anger is that an angry only to steal, and kill, and destroy” person nearly always believes their (John 10:10). When we indulge in anger is justified, whether or not it such hatred, we are drinking deeply is true. We feel in the right when we of the satanic spirit of destruction. are angry, or we would simply not be Such animosity is toxic to the soul, angry. quickly extinguishing the flame

of love by which the soul lives, plunging us into spiritual darkness.

Finally, we face the temptation of equating the way of Jesus Christ, the way of the gospel of peace, with weakness. I recently saw a Catholic on Facebook bragging about how, in response to recent news, he had modified his high-powered shotgun to inflict maximum destruction on others. This is not the spirit of Christ. Violence is at times justified, as is self-defence and the defence of our families, the weak, and the innocent. But violence for violence’s sake should never be delighted in. It is always a tragedy, something to be grieved over, though sometimes a necessary evil.

The accusation hurled against those who advocate peace over violence is that of cowardice, weakness, or effeminacy. But the truth is the exact opposite. Anyone can give in to his lower impulses toward violence and anger. That is really quite easy, for they are powerful feelings, and indulging in them is the most natural thing in the world.

But restraining your tongue, your fist, your social media comments, even your thoughts — now, that is difficult. It takes a tremendous amount of strength and self-control to harness the impulse to destroy, especially for us men who are naturally aggressive. This is the strength Christ possessed, for he had more power than any being in the universe but never once used it to kill, inflict violence, or destroy his enemies.

We Must Choose the Way of Peace

These are the temptations we face in our times of chaos and destabilisation. Fear, anger, hatred, and violence — these are all too natural. But we are not called to be natural, but supernatural. If we are to live as Christians in an evil world, we must choose the way of peace.

9th October 2020 Catholic Voice

OVERCOMING EVIL 29

The way of peace does not mean ignorance of the evil in the world.

We are called to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves — fully aware of the darkness around us, but choosing the path laid down for us by Christ, which is the way of reconciliation, love, and redemptive suffering. What is this path? Here are but a few commandments from scripture: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9 “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you” Luke 6:27.

“But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” Matthew 5:39 “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” 1 Peter 3:9 In choosing to become men of peace in a world of violence, we bear witness that we live according to the higher law; not the law of nature or the law of the jungle, but the law of Christ.

Blessed are the Peacemakers: for they shall be called Children of God. We fight not with weapons of flesh and blood or heated, hateful rhetoric, but with prayer, humility, love, good works, and selfdiscipline. Moreover, to paraphrase the great Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, we recognise that the real evil is not somewhere out there, but within every human heart, yours and mine. Self-condemnation, then, and the struggle of repentance is the real battle to which we are called.

The way of peace, which is the way of Christ, is not popular. It will not give you an adrenaline rush, the high of self-righteous disdain

for others, or the thrill of mob violence, rhetorical or physical. It will not garner clicks and shares on social media, nor contribute to fear-induced panic buying. But it is nevertheless the way of the cross, the way of sacrificial self-giving to which we are all called by the Master, Jesus Christ.

Two ways lie before you: The way of power, aggression, opposition and hatred—which is the way of the world—or the way of Christ, who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Which one will you choose?

The Lumen Fidei Institute

Parenting Roadshow - Back On The Road We are now taking bookings for small home meetings to inform parents and other interested parties of the plans the sexologists and LGBT ideologists have for our schools. These programmes will corrupt the minds of children by giving them a false understanding of human sexuality.

We also look at the duties and responsibilities of Catholic parents with suggestions on how to strengthen your Faith life in order to be able to meet the challenges of rearing children in 2020s Ireland.

We are happy to host this presentation in small groups of up to six parents (or more depending on current covid restrictions), either in peoples homes or in other small venues. Please get in touch if you would like to host a small meeting and we can arrange the details with you.

Contact: John Lacken +353 (0)85 120 8779 E-mail: secretary@lumenfidei.ie Web: www.lumenfidei.ie Raith, Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, F35 V127

30 BOOKS

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

STRENG THEN YOUR FAITH DURING THIS CRISIS r for o

yourself BUY CATHOLIC BOOKS! Buy for nd. a frie

DON’T GO TO HELL Catholic Church Teaching on Hell

THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES

This book contains three essays, one in question & answer format, from a time when pastors were more direct and ‘plain speaking’ in presenting the Truth of Catholic doctrine to their flocks.

They were primarily concerned with the salvation of the souls entrusted to their care rather than being overly concerned about whether or not their flocks would find these Truths offensive or difficult.

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

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

€/£7 inc p&p Ireland €/£8.50 inc p&p outside Ireland

€/£10 inc p&p Ireland €/£12 inc p&p outside Ireland

EGO EIMI - IT IS I

“May the present book of Rev. Fr. de Malleray FSSP, a beautiful and impressive “paper shrine to the Most Holy Eucharist”, have a wide diffusion and be a practical spiritual aid in order to renew the Catholic Faith, the Catholic Love and the Catholic Worship of the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist.” + Athanasius Schneider.

“This highly readable, informative, and edifying treatise on the Holy Eucharist will enrich the understanding and devotion of Catholics regardless of their prior knowledge of the subject: I recommend it wholeheartedly.” Dr Joseph Shaw PhD,

SCIENCE SAYS NO

In this book, Dr. van den Aardweg debunks many of the myths created by the global homosexualist movement. The argument for gay “marriage” is exposed as a deception in this ground breaking book. For many years the public has been indoctrinated with unfounded assertions which in fact are no more than modern fairy tales sold as science. In other words, as regards homosexuality, people hear and read mostly lies. The book explains why the deception is possible and shows why no assertion of the gay ideology has been scientifically validated. €/£9 inc p&p Ireland €/£10.50 inc p&p outside Ireland

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

This really is a fantastic book which presents Catholic teaching on sin in a simple, clear and precise way. You will learn about the nature of sin, about the different kinds of sin, mortal and venial, formal and material sins.

Reflections on the Abortion Issue in Ireland.

Oxf, Chairman of The Latin Mass Society.

The book also teaches us about sins of omission. After discussing sin, the book then speaks of the great graces offered to us in the sacrament of confession, it teaches us about temptations, about Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, and then it finishes with a very hope filled chapter on the joys of the resurrection.

Many countries, including Ireland, have removed the right to life 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.”

€/£9 inc p&p Ireland €/£12 inc p&p outside Ireland

€/£10 inc p&p Ireland €/£12 inc p&p outside Ireland

€/£13.50 inc p&p Ireland €/£15 inc p&p outside Ireland

Book Title/s: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Credit/Debit Card Number: __________________________________________________ Expiry Date: _______________________________

C.V.V. ________________

Total Enclosed: €/£__________________________ Name:

_________________________________________________________________

Address: _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Post Code: __________________________________ Daytime Tel: ________________________________

Send completed form with cheque/postal order made payable to Catholic Voice or with credit/debit card details to: Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland or telephone 059 8627268 (00353 59862726 8 from outside Ireland) Please allow 14 working days for delivery.

CLASSIFIEDS 31

9th October 2020 Catholic Voice

CLASSIFIEDS From Our Lady of Fatima Do you want peace in the world?

Will you do what Our Lady tells you?

Say the Rosary every day.

Do the Five First Saturdays in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Those who spread this devotion will be placed by Our Lady as flowers before the throne of Almighty God. Next issue of

CatholicVoice On sale in churches, newsagents & bookshops from

22 October 2020

TELEPHONE 00353 59 8627268

REGULAR TRADITIONAL LATIN MASSES IN IRELAND (LISTED BY DIOCESE)

DAILY & WEEKLY Armagh: New Mellifont Abbey, Collon, Co. Louth; Every Sunday 3pm.

Cork & Ross: Ss Peter’s & Paul’s, Cork: Sundays 12.00 noon Mon -Sat 10.00am.

Dromore: St.Mary’s, Newry: Sundays and Holydays 09.00.

Dublin: St. Kevin’s, Harrington Street: Sundays & non working Holy Days: 10.30; Mon - Fri 08.00; Sat 09.00.

Working Holidays & First Fridays; 08.00 and 19.00.

Dublin: St. Joseph’s, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow; Sat 11.00 Limerick: Sacred Heart, The Crescent (ICKSP); Sun10.30; Mon-Thurs 08.00 and 19.00; Friday 19.00; Saturday 08.00 & 12.00 noon.

Meath: Silverstream Priory (Benedictine monks) Stamullen: Sunday 10.00 preceded by Terce, other days 11.00.

Meath: Johnstown, Navan: Sundays 13.00; Holydays as announced.

Ossory: St. Patrick’s, College Rd, Kilkenny; Sundays 17.00.

Raphoe: St. Patrick’s, Drumkeen, Co. Donegal Sundays 11.00am.

Down & Connor: St. Therese of Lisieux, Somerton Rd, Belfast :Sundays at 4pm TWICE MONTHLY Ferns: St. Alphonsus, Barntown, Co Wexford: Second Sunday 17.00 and occasional Third Sundays Derry: St. Columba’s , Longtower: First and Third Sunday 14.00.

Waterford: St. John’s Church, Parnell Street, Waterford City - 1pm on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the Month.

MONTHLY Armagh: St. Patrick’s, Dungannon, Co Tyrone: First Saturday 14.00.

Cork & Ross: St. Francis , Liberty St. Cork : First Saturday 13.00.

Derry: St. Marys, Aughabrack, Co Tyrone: Fourth Sunday 12.45 Elphin: St. John’s, carraoe, Co Sligo ; Last Sunday 15.00.

Killaloe: St. Joseph’s, Ennis, Co Clare: First Sunday 17.30.

Tuam: St. John the Baptist, (Old Parish Church), Knock, Co Mayo; Second Sunday 17.30.

Every effort has been made to ensure this list is up to date. Please contact the Latin Mass Society of Ireland of any changes or errors. email president@latinmassireland.com

Visit our all-new website today!

Mass Cards

Enrollment Books

All Occasion Gifts

It’s now easier than ever to have Mass cards, enrolment books & religious gifts delivered directly to your door.

Web: www.mscmissions.ie Email: info@mscmissions.ie Tel: +353 (0)21 4545704

32 ADVERT

Catholic Voice

9th October 2020

“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, And Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus therefore saw His mother And the disciple standing by Whom He loved, He said unto His mother, “Woman, behold thy son!”

Then said He to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!”

And from that hour, That disciple took her unto his own home.

(Gospel of St John 19:25-27)

EC

www.usgraceforce.com

Copies sent to His Excellency President Donald John Trump and Father Richard Heilman.

Published by: Catholic Voice Newspapers, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, County Kildare. Tel 059-8627268 ROI / 00353 - 59 8627268 Publisher: Anthony Murphy.

Layout by: Lumen Fidei