Catholic Voice 18th June 2021 Issue 319

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2 GUEST EDITORIAL

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Disaster Looms Phil Lawler

Disaster looms if Pope Francis restricts the traditional Mass At a time when Catholics are leaving the Church by the thousands, and young people especially are deserting the faith, traditionalist parishes are seeing explosive growth, marked in particular by an influx of young families. So why would any Catholic prelate, intent on evangelisation, want to interfere with the growth of traditional Catholicism?

The rumours are true. My sources in Rome — too many and too reliable to be doubted — confirm that a document is circulating at the Vatican which, if given papal approval, would significantly restrict use the “extraordinary form” of the liturgy, the traditional Latin Mass (TLM).

This document is in draft form. It could be amended. It might never be released. But it would not even be under discussion without at least tacit approval (if not active support) from Pope Francis. And if it is released in anything like its current form, it would be a pastoral and doctrinal disaster. It would thwart a powerful movement for reform in the Church, and it would — paradoxically — undermine the Pope’s own authority.

Let me explain.

In Summorum Pontificum, his apostolic letter of 2007, Pope

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Benedict XVI gave the Catholic faithful much wider access to the TLM. With this new document, styled as an “instruction” for the “implementation” of Summorum Pontificum, Pope Francis would in effect repudiate the work of his predecessor, and at the same time cut off the blood supply to the fastest-growing part of the universal Church.

Pope Benedict wrote Summorum Pontificum because he recognised, in the growing demand for the traditional liturgy, an authentic movement of the Holy Spirit within the Church. The desire for the TLM is not prompted by nostalgia; the overwhelming majority of people in the pews are not old enough to remember the liturgy that was universal before Vatican II. At a time when Catholics are leaving the Church by the thousands, and young people especially are deserting the faith, traditionalist parishes are seeing explosive growth, marked in particular by an influx of young families.

So why would any Catholic prelate, intent on evangelisation, want to interfere with the growth of traditional Catholicism? Why mess with success? Could it be because the obvious pastoral health of the traditionalist communities makes for an unpleasant contrast with the failures of the rapidly shrinking parishes in the Catholic mainstream? As I observed just a few weeks ago, it is revealing “that the one liturgical option liberal Catholics cannot abide is the option for the ancient liturgy.”

In Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict declared that any priest has the right to celebrate the traditional liturgy, without requiring an “indult” or special permission from his bishop. The draft document would reportedly rescind that permission. To be

perfectly honest, in practice this change would not have too much impact on the availability of the TLM, because any prudent diocesan priest already knows that if he displeases the bishop by offering the TLM without his approval, he will likely suffer reprisals. In that way, contrary to the spirit of Summorum Pontificum, many bishops have continued to smother the demand for the traditional liturgy.

However, the requirement of episcopal approval (which is only one of several new restrictions being proposed) would have a very significant effect in another way. In Summorum Pontificum Pope Benedict also made it clear that — contrary to a widespread impression — the TLM had never been abrogated. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful,” Pope Benedict explained.

Clearly, if Pope Francis now effectively forbids the celebration of the TLM, and/or says that the traditional liturgy is harmful — or gives diocesan bishops the

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18th June 2021 Catholic Voice power to do so — then he is directly contradicting his predecessor. And if Pope Francis can contradict the teaching of Pope Benedict, what is to prevent a future Pontiff from contradicting Pope Francis? Anyone who is genuinely interested in preserving papal authority (as opposed to gaining a temporary advantage in intramural debates) should recognise the mischief this draft document could cause.

Ironically, the Catholic leaders who are lobbying for a heavy-handed use of papal power in this instance have spent the past several generations railing against the invocation of papal authority in other cases — including the case of Summorum Pontificum. But the rightful authority of the Roman Pontiff is severely limited. He can only proclaim the truths passed down in the Catholic Tradition. If he contradicts the teaching of previous Pontiffs — if he suggests that what was once sacred is sacred no longer — he attacks the base on which his own authority rests.

This draft document, then, represents not just a problem for traditionalists, but a grave danger for the Church.

It should be vigorously resisted by anyone who cares about the mission of evangelisation, the integrity of doctrine, and the preservation of papal authority.

Published with permission from CatholicCulture.org

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4 HOLY SCRIPTURE

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Water In The Scriptures Canon Lebocq I.C.K.S.P.

Holy Scripture presents water full of meaning. It is associated with birth and fertility, suffering and conversion. Throughout the Bible, water is presented as a means of purification and ablution ultimately preparing souls for the indwelling of Divine Life by baptism.

Among the three other elements (fire, earth and air), water is the first to be described as created by God Himself, who grants it to whomever He pleases.

Genesis distinguishes “the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament” (Gn 1,7). Sometimes rain would fall on earth when “flood-gates from on high” (Is 24,18) were opened, and water would visit the earth with dew that would “continue in [God’s] harvest” (Job 29,19).

It often appears that water is a sign of God’s blessing.

It was generously granted to those who were obedient to God’s Law: “The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season” while it was deprived from the unfaithful: “I will make to you the heaven above as iron, and the earth as brass” (Deut.

28, 12).

Those who live without God are compared to a dry earth who will soon die (Ps 143, 6) while those who are united to the Almighty are, on the contrary, similar to a flourishing garden that contains the source and origin of Life itself: “Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail” (Is 58,11).

As the source of life, God can also use water to inflict punishment upon His people. In the book of Job suffering is compared to the “violence of overflowing waters” (Job 22,11) and Isaiah threatens the river

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Euphrates “shall overflow all his banks” as God chastises his people for their unfaithfulness (Is 8,7).

Whether used in blessing or chastisement, however, Holy Scripture ultimately uses water for conversion and spiritual regeneration. The washing of hands in Psalm 26, 6 points to a higher innocence, a moral purity and a sinless conscience. The High priest in the Temple also prepared himself for his consecration with purifying water: “When thou hast washed Aaron and his sons with water, Thou shalt clothe Aaron with his vestments” (Ex 29, 4). Yet all of these purifications were only exterior and unable to purify souls. When Christ comes, however, He perfects regeneration and declares, “Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you” (Jn 15,3).

Foreshadowing Christ’s Incarnation, God promises Ezekiel an abundance of purifying waters to

18th June 2021

HOLY SCRIPTURE 5

Catholic Voice

the faithful, which will clean their hearts and enable them to accomplish His Law in perfection: “I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.

And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. (Ez 36,24-25).

Jeremiah prophesies that God “will bring them through the torrents of waters in a right way, and they shall not stumble in it” (Jer 31,9).

The city of Jerusalem, when all is accomplished, is compared to an infinite spring, where a large river will flow from the Temple to the Dead Sea. It will bear heath and life on its banks, along with growth of trees and fruits (Ez 47,1-12): “Every living creature that creepeth whithersoever the torrent shall come shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance after these waters shall come thither, and they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent shall come (Ez 47, 9).

The

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Preaching Truth for the Salvation of Souls

Christ, Life Himself come to earth, fulfils the images of water in the Old Testament and presents us with true salvation in Baptism. He is the rock whose side was opened and from which “immediately came out blood and water” (Jn 19, 34).

He is the only one who can quench the thirst of all pilgrims on this earth and He offers this gift to all in prayer and the sacraments. When we are baptised, our souls receive the forgiveness of all our sins, the complete purification of the soul and of the conscience, the “laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost” (Tit 3,5). Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink” (Jn 7, 37). Let us then come to Jesus the true Temple, the source of the river that flows upon the New Jerusalem and slake our thirst in Him.

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6 ST PADRE PIO - SPANISH FLU

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

When Padre Pio Lost His Sister And Nephew To The Spanish Flu Bret Thoman, OFS

Padre Pio hoped for a miracle, but a miracle didn’t come.

How did he react?

The Spanish Flu hit Padre Pio’s family personally in Pietrelcina. His own sister and nephew both succumbed to the Spanish flu.

His nephew, Pellegrino, died at the age of 4 on September 22, 1918. Padre Pio’s sister, Felicita, died three days later at the age of 29. Both were struck down by “this cursed Spanish fevers.”

Adding to his suffering was Padre Pio’s anguish in not being able to celebrate their funerals. In a letter to his parents, Padre Pio said he could not go to Pietrelcina “because I feel terrible and powerless to undertake this long and arduous journey.” In fact, just six days earlier, he had received the stigmata on September 17.

After the loss of his sister, Padre Pio’s own mother, Peppa, became infected with the H1N1 virus, likely after contact with her daughter. In October 1918, she was “in very poor health” and they feared she might die.

Padre Pio asked his spiritual daughters to pray for her recovery.

This time, their prayers were heard and she improved.

On the other hand, during this period, Padre Pio’s family in Pietrelcina suffered two more losses. The first was Alfredo, the son of Pellegrina Forgione, Padre Pio’s second sister. He died on October 12, 1918, at 14 months.

Two years later, Francesco Forgione, son of Michele, Padre Pio’s older brother, died on November 9, 1920, just after turning 9.

Resignation to the Divine Will What was Padre Pio’s response to all this death and suffering? This was a theme close to his heart, as he endured untold physical and mental sufferings – including the stigmata – for most of his life.

He united his sufferings to the will of God. Here it is important to clarify that the suffering we endure in the human race was not God’s original plan for us. As CCC #418 states, suffering entered the world only with sin.

As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called “concupiscence”).

And yet, as the Catechism recalls in another paragraph (311), God permits suffering and even sin, because he is able in his power and creativity, to bring good from it.

For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.

In a letter to his parents after the loss of his sister and nephew, Padre Pio exhorted them to accept the will of God in all circumstances. He wrote: “I exhort you to this resignation to the divine will, and you will find, like me, alleviation of your pain.”

The same resignation is found in other letters he wrote to those close to him in which he expressed the pain of losing his sister and nephew. He wrote to a woman who was about to enter a monastery: “I leave it to you to imagine the torment of my heart. And yet there is nothing left for me to do but repeat with Job: ‘The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!’” To a spiritual daughter, Antonietta Vona, he wrote: “My daughter, my soul is embittered by the cruelest torment.

But I adore the just judgments of God.” Padre Pio once told a spiritual son: “Even before we are born, the Lord prepares many things in our life and leaves us free to follow the good or the bad way. But what one must go through, what He has arranged, does not change,

18th June 2021 Catholic Voice

ST PADRE PIO - SPANISH FLU 7

and even praying to Him for a miracle does not change what the Lord has established.”

He clarified: Even this destiny that is fixed by the Lord, in effect it is we who choose it. To get to a place, there is a good road and a bad road. If one chooses the good one and we live this life with resignation, [fulfilling] all the duties towards God and towards men, we will easily reach Heaven where He will reward us.

If, on the other hand, we go down the road of evil, and the misfortunes of life are not accepted with resignation, though they are arranged by the Lord, then we go towards eternal perdition.

What the Lord has fixed remains as such. It is simply that He gives us the freedom to choose the road by which to arrive. Everything, therefore, depends on our will. […]

A misfortune, an illness, humiliations: these are things destined by God, but everything depends on how they are accepted by us, and our will consists in this.

In these letters, we see that Padre Pio did not consider suffering a meaningless burden. On the contrary, he urged those who were bowed down with troubles to bear their pain with patience and resignation. He considered suffering a great privilege and yearned for it himself. In fact, many times, he asked the Lord if he might take onto himself the sufferings of others.

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8 HAHN ORDINATION

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Scott Hahn’s Son Ordained To The Priesthood Patrick Hayes

Theologian Dr. Scott Hahn shared in a May 17 announcement that his son, Jeremiah Hahn, would be ordained into the priesthood on Friday 21st May. He published a beautiful and soul-stirring testament about this important moment in his son’s life.

Hahn explained what it means to him as a theologian and catechised Catholic, but specifically as a Father.

“It’s different,” Hahn said, because the “marvel is in this very moment.”

“I was present— and, by God’s grace, an active co-creator—at Jeremiah’s conception. I held him when he was born. I comforted him when he was teething. I walked with him through adolescence. Yet nothing I’ve witnessed in his life can equal the marvel God will work on May 21 in the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”

Here’s his full statement below: “This month, May of 2021, I am watching my son Jeremiah become a priest. As a lay theologian and a catechised Catholic, I know what this means.

“He will be changed down to the roots of his being. He will be conformed to Christ in a special way so that he can speak divine words with divine power, forgiving sins and making Jesus really present. He will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to act ‘in persona Christi’ – as ‘another Christ’ (alter christus) – to minister as an earthly priest in the service of

Ordination of Fr Jeremiah Hahn - Image Scott Hahn Facebook

Jesus Christ himself, our only High Priest, in the highest heaven (Heb. 8:1-4).

“As a professor of Sacred Scripture and Theology, I know all of this from the testimony of the Bible and Tradition.

“The priesthood of Jesus Christ, shared with the clergy of his Church, is evident in both the Old and New Testaments. It is prefigured in the Old and fulfilled in the New. I know it because of brilliant studies by scholars in my field, from André Feuillet and Thomas Lane to Carter Griffin and John Bergsma. I have even written my own book about priesthood, ‘Many Are Called: Rediscovering the Glory of the Priesthood’.”

“But this time is different for me. The marvel is in this very moment.

“I was present— and, by God’s grace, an active co-creator—at Jeremiah’s conception. I held him when he was born. I comforted him when he was teething. I walked with him through adolescence. Yet nothing I’ve witnessed in his life can equal the marvel God will work on May 21 in the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

“Please pray for Jeremiah. Pray for his fidelity above all. But pray too that he will, like Jesus in his ministry, and like God in the act of creation, do ‘all things well’ (Mark 7:37). For he will not only be working for God; he will be doing God’s work, with God’s hands.

“At the end of every day, may he be able to look back and see the good (indeed the marvels) God has worked through the blessed hands of a man from eastern Ohio.

“So much of what we do at the St. Paul Centre is an expression of our love for the priesthood. We have been offering conferences and retreats for clergy since 2005. We have published numerous books about the life of priests and the meaning of the sacrament. I am not proud when I say that, from the moment of my conversion, I have kept a keen appreciation of the beauty of Holy Orders.

“Through the scandals and the defections, this has only increased.

But this month I am experiencing something entirely new. I am witnessing God’s marvel in the present tense, from the inside.

“I invite you to join me in your prayer. And I thank you in advance for that gift!”

18th June 2021 Catholic Voice

TRANSGENDERISM 9

Transgenderism Is The ‘Final Rebellion Against God’ Patrick Craine

Archbishop Emeritus Chaput of Philadelphia joins a growing chorus of Catholic leaders pushing back against the transgender movement and gender ideology.

Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, spoke out against sexual immorality and the transgender movement on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Today last week, calling transgenderism “the final rebellion against God.” The recently retired archbishop, appointed to the Philadelphia archdiocese by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, linked “sex-change” attempts with the “foundational sin” of idolatry in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “You know Catholics talk about original sin, other Christian communities talk about the sin of Adam and Eve, which was they wanted to be like God. They didn’t want God to tell them what to do.

They wanted to do it their way,” he said.

“Instead of giving God his due, you give to someone else or something else what belongs to God,” he continued. “That’s called idolatry.

It’s a foundational sin. It’s the most dangerous sin and it’s led us down this path of making ourselves a centre of creation.”

When asked about the desire of people to take on the role of God, the archbishop said, “I think that the gender issues today are the prime example of that, where we’re not even satisfied with the body that we’re born with, that we think we have the power to become something that we were not created, that I can become a woman or a woman can become a man.”

“That’s something God does, not something we do, but in some ways that’s the final rebellion against God,” Chaput added.

He also discussed the sexual revolution, describing it as another

“great rebellion” against the creator and a direct contributor to sexual and gender pathologies like transgenderism. “You know, the sexual revolution was a great rebellion against God,” he said. “It was rebelling against the way God made our bodies and the way God created human sexuality, but now it’s come to the point where we even think that we should have control over the kind of human beings we are.”

Archbishop Chaput joins a growing chorus of prelates decrying LGBT and gender ideologies in recent months. In May, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco condemned what he called the “terrible” and “very alarming” trend of minors being chemically castrated or even surgically mutilated due to gender dysphoria.

“There’s so much scientific evidence of the harm this does to children, giving them puberty blockers, and not just in terms of their sexual development but otherwise, too, [and] in other aspects of physical health,” he told the Daily Caller.

“I think it’s the next step of getting further and further away from the original created order of ‘male and female he created them.’”

“A person cannot change his or her sex,” a policy enacted earlier this year by Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, noted. “The

human person is a body-soul union, and the body — created male or female — is a constitutive aspect of the human person.”

“Procedures, surgeries, and therapies designed to assist a person in ‘transitioning’ his or her sex are morally prohibited,” the policy, which echoes one published by Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, adds.

Archbishop Chaput’s comments to Tucker Carlson also come as the LGBT movement and its supporters, including some dissident Catholics, ramp up “pride” month propaganda — much of it sexually explicit and aimed directly at children. More than a dozen leading kids’ TV shows have begun peddling LGBT “pride” content, like Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues and You, which released a video starring a real-life drag queen last week.

Both the Vatican and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have denounced gender ideology and transgenderism, the USCCB particularly highlighting the risks the ideology poses for children. “Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can ‘change’ their sex or, further, given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults,” an open letter signed by the USCCB in 2017 read.

10 LOVE THE CHURCH

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Love and Lament Alike – A Brief Reflection for All Who Care About the Church Monsignor Charles Pope

As a priest and pastor I work very closely with others: clergy, religious, laity who work for the Church, and laity who volunteer. We all work for the Church because we love her and her people.

At times, though, there is disappointment, hurt, or even disillusionment. Perhaps these feelings result from issues in the wider Church: sexual abuse by clergy, the lack of courage and leadership from some bishops and priests, the scandal of dissent at the highest levels, questionable partnerships with anti-life and anti-Catholic organisations, the breakdown of discipline, and the strange severity of response to some infractions contrasted with the almost total laxity in the face of others. Perhaps they are the result of local problems found in any group of human beings: gossip, hurtful actions, hypocrisy, power struggles, misplaced priorities, favouritism, and injustice.

While these things happen everywhere, many hope that there will be fewer occurrences in the Church. Some who come to work for the Church begin by thinking, How wonderful it will be to work for the Church instead of out in the cut-throat business world! Maybe they envision a place where people pray together and support each other more. Perhaps they think the Church will be a place with less competition and strife.

Alas, such hopes are usually dashed quickly. We are, after all, running a hospital of sorts; and just as hospitals tend to attract the sick, so the Church attracts sinners and those who struggle. Jesus was often found in strange company, so much so that the Pharisees were scandalised. He rebuked them by saying, People who are well do not need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not the righteous (Mark 2:17).

Idealistic notions of working in and for the Church evaporate quickly when the phone rings with an impatient parishioner on the line, or when two group leaders argue over who gets to use the parish hall, or when the pastor is irritable and disorganised, or when the maintenance engineer is found to be drinking on the job, or when certain members of the choir are making anything but harmony, or when some favoured parishioners get attention from and access to the old guard leaders while newcomers are resisted.

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For all these sorts of situations that engender irritation, disappointment, or disillusionment, I keep a little prayer card near my desk. Sometimes I read it for my own benefit and sometimes I share it with those who feel discouraged at what happens (or doesn’t happen) in the Church. It is a beautiful mediation; it recalls that although great love often generates the deep disappointment, in the end love still abides.

Consider, then, the following words. They are perhaps over-the-top in places, but love has its excesses. Take these words as a kind of elixir that speaks to the pain that love can cause.

How baffling you are, Oh Church, And yet how I love you!

How you have made me suffer, And yet how much I owe you!

I would like to see you destroyed, And yet I need your presence.

You have given me so much scandal And yet you have made me understand what sanctity is.

I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, More compromised, more false, And yet I have touched nothing more pure, More generous, more beautiful.

How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, And how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you, Because I am you, though not completely.

And besides, where would I go?

Would I establish another?

I would not be able to establish it without the same faults, For they are the same faults I carry in me.

And if I did establish another, It would be my Church, Not the Church of Christ. (from The God Who Comes, by Carlo Carretto) Yes, where else would I go?

18th June 2021

Catholic Voice

Letters Catholic Schools Dear Editor, Some national politicians have questioned why a Catholic ethos should be present in our schools.

Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of children are from a Catholic background and that their parents have a sneaking feeling that the Catholic ethos is the most compassionate, coherent and comprehensive available. These parents are delighted to see kindness and a belief that our lives have a significance beyond our ability to fit into a consumer-driven economy, taught alongside mathematics, geography, etc.

Those who do not appreciate this are largely unwilling to put the time, effort and money into founding and sustaining schools having an alternative ethos. It would be strange if the presence of children from these parents – who are unwilling to set up their own schools – should result in parish schools dumping what is distinctively Catholic. If the tables were turned, would these parents, having gone to the trouble of setting up their own schools, consider it fair to be forced to abandon their preferred ethos, on account of the presence of few children from some other background?

Democracy is founded upon the interchange of ideas, not an obsession with obliterating particular perspectives, Christian or otherwise. The dominant political, media and corporate driven ideology of today’s world, casualises sex, relationships and even life itself; marriage, familylife and having children are optional extras. Currently the birth rate of every European country has fallen below its self-replacement value. In other words, we are in the process of self-extermination.

The Christian approach to life, including relationships and our sexuality education, helps our young people to embrace a life of meaning and personal responsibility that is both rewarding and sustainable. It is indeed worthy of our support.

Gearóid Duffy, Cork.

Abortion Dear Editor, As many of us pro-lifers know, during the Abortion Referendum campaign, many “placating lies” from proabortion politicians were told to the voting public e.g. abortions would be safe, legal and rare if that Referendum was passed. Now, post Referendum, we of course know the reality is very different e.g. more than 6,600 abortions were carried out in Ireland last year according to the Dept of Health; late-term abortions are being carried out on unborn babies without any anaestesia or pain-killing medication; doctors are being trained overseas in lateterm abortion procedures etc .

LETTERS 11 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie Critical, in the pre-Referendum campaign, was the Catholic church whose bishops issued pious platitudes in Mass missalettes decrying abortion but little else!

However, there is a chink of hope in the recent statement from Archbishop Salvadore Cordileone of San Francisco in response to Nancy Pelosi’s, the present Speaker of the House of Representatives and one of his parishioners, assertion that pro-life Catholics “should not be willing to sell the whole democracy down the river on this one issue i.e. abortion” and her belief that pro-life Catholics were instrumental in getting Donald Trump elected as America’s President in 2016.

However, what is different is Archbishop Cordileone’s assertion and belief that “ he and they would have to answer to God for innocent blood”! There are many Catholic politicians in America, mostly Democrats and mostly pro-abortion, like Pelosi, John Kerry, Joe Biden and all the way back to Ted Kennedy. Even more sad is that they are been given Holy Communion when they present themselves at the alter rails during Mass. Canon 915 of the Catholic Church’s code of Canon Law provides that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion!”

When have we ever heard such fundamental words of admission from a priest or bishop, which apply to each and every one of us. I well remember, prior to the last Abortion Referendum, along with a few pro-lifers, meeting our local bishop by appointment and asking that a pro-life speaker from the Life Institute be allowed to speak for a few minutes from his church’s lecterns at Sunday Mass on abortion. On each occasion his response was “It wouldn’t be appropriate at this time!” Surely it’s time that our priests and bishops make their presence felt and obvious in protesting against abortion in all its forms e.g. Pro-life demonstrations and marches? Pious pronouncements in our missalettes are not enough!

Sadly logic and reason would incline us to believe that the celebrant, during Mass, would be regarded as the custodian of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which should only be given to worthy Catholics.

Hopefully, Archbishop Cordileone’s statement will engender a new sense of courage and commitment in our hierarchy and Magisterium in pro-actively responding and reacting to such pro-abortion politicians to ensure that, when they present to receive the Blessed Eucharist, they are refused. Many believe that bishops are slow to confront this insult to a fundamental tenet of our Faith i.e. respect for the dignity of life from birth until natural death, because they are in receipt of governmental monies for charitable causes. Even worse, evidence shows that some of these monies are donated to pro-abortion causes!

Good news is in short supply these days. May this be a portent of a positive change in our Church in confronting this shocking societal abomination and abuse of the Holy Eucharist.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

12 GUARD YOUR FAITH

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

And Because Iniquity Hath Abounded, The Charity Of Many Shall Grow Cold But He That Shall Persevere To The End, He Shall Be Saved **PARENTAL WARNING** THIS ARTICLE IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN

John Lacken

(Matthew 24:12-13)

Let us continue to pray earnestly for our bishops who have been entrusted by God with caring for the Catholic faithful in their Dioceses.

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.

On 24th May this year, we sent a letter to the three bishops who are on the board of Trustees of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.

At the time of this writing, no response has been received.

It is important to write to our bishops when we see something contrary to the Catholic Faith happening within a diocesan institution. As Bishop Brendan Leahy, who is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, said in his Pentecost Pastoral Letter this year: “Our own lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

It matters that children in Catholic schools are being indoctrinated with the false LGBT ideology which promotes the homosexual lifestyle.

It is in fact a form of child abuse to teach children in Catholic schools falsehoods about human sexuality.

These falsehoods ignore the scientific realities of pro-creation which only happens naturally between a man and a woman. The

God given purpose of our human sexuality, to ‘increase and multiply, and fill the earth’, is also ignored in favour of a contraceptive mentality being foisted on children in Catholic schools.

One can only wonder at the silence of our bishops in the face of this form of child abuse.

Another disturbing matter that has been doing the rounds lately comes from a group called ‘Irish Parents Review English Curriculum Blog’ which can be accessed at the following link ‘irishparents. blogspot.com.

The blog tells us “We are a team of concerned parents (some of us are also teachers) who have come together to highlight any objectionable, extreme or inappropriate material which is being introduced into the new curriculum for English at both Junior and Leaving (Senior) Cycles.”

I have read some of the reviews of the books in question and I find it very disturbing and unsettling that such evil books are being recommended for children in second and third year classes in Irish secondary schools. The material in some of these books is dangerous even for adults to read about, it is so depraved and evil.

It is further evidence that we live in a society which shamelessly promotes evil, even to children.

There is a grave danger for those of us who read up on these matters, especially when we see the seeming indifference of those in the Church who should be protecting our children. The danger is that one’s faith in the Catholic Church and her teachings can be damaged when one is constantly being exposed to scandal after scandal emanating from within the ranks of the hierarchy.

One Catholic blogger, Steve Skojec, a cradle Catholic, recently wrote a

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post online which went viral called ‘Against Crippled Religion’, where he basically says that he has had enough and is no longer sure where to turn to or where to go.

“I’m angry — but perhaps even more sad — because I have begged God to help me find my way through all this mess, to do the right thing, and to hold on to my faith, but I get no perceptible answer, and I don’t know where to go from here.” (Steve Skojec) Rod Dreher, another American journalist who covered the Catholic Church scandals in America ended up leaving the Catholic Church for Eastern Orthodoxy.

He announced this publicly in 2010 and as part of his explanation he wrote the following.

“Back in 2001, when I first started writing about the child sex-abuse scandal in the Church, Father Tom Doyle, the heroic priest who ruined his own career by speaking out for victims, warned me, ‘If you keep going down this path, you are going to go to places darker than you can imagine.’”

The darkness is palpable when one is dealing with the abuse of children, whether that be sexual abuse, abortion, or the educational child abuse which teaches children in Catholic schools falsehoods about human sexuality, and denies them the full teachings of the Catholic Church.

Catholics should beware of becoming obsessed with looking at the Hope-draining darkness within the Church in our times. We need to strive to keep our focus on Jesus Christ and on the Crucifixion.

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon of Thee for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. Amen.

Angel to the Children of Fatima 1916

Many Catholics struggle perhaps because they are somehow trying to reconcile what is irreconcilable - Catholic clerical child abuse.

Many simply walk away from the Catholic Church. Others avoid or tend to minimise the problem. But the problem is real and needs to be faced up to, especially for the sake of our children.

I was invited by Steve Skojec to do a video interview for his blog after the abortion referendum passed in Ireland in 2018. The passage of this referendum has institutionalised abortion as a new form of child abuse here in Ireland. I felt a connection with Steve and I wanted to reach out to him and to others whose faith is suffering because of the constant bashing that the Catholic Church is getting and the almost total lack of a defence in the face of grave scandals.

Where are today’s saints when we need them?

I wrote the following in a comment I left on Steve’s substack blog. I do not particularly like to relate personal stories from my life as I always hear my father’s voice telling me, “we are all the heroes of our own stories”. It is not meant to be about me, even though what follows happened to me. The purpose is to encourage people to “persevere to the end”, in order to be saved”. Here is some of what I wrote to Steve Skojec, after congratulating him on the birth of his eighth child - Elijah Daniel Skojec.

“I am reminded of the time I nearly drowned in Germany, I was over for my sister’s wedding and we had gone swimming in a fresh water lake. It didn’t occur to me that fresh water gives you less buoyancy than sea water and I also ignored the rule my father had drummed into us when we were children, “always swim parallel to the shore”.

I saw these people sitting out on a wooden platform and I decided to

GUARD YOUR FAITH 13 swim out there myself. I was about half way there when I realised that I was getting tired and I wasn’t going to make it, so I turned back. Very soon I realised that I didn’t have the strength to make it back to the shore.

The mind seems to speed up in such situations and the thought of drowning just before my sister’s wedding, and this after losing another sister in a motor cycle accident not two years previously, filled me with regret at the heartbreak it would bring to my parents. I could have kicked myself for my own stupidity but I was in danger of drowning and I needed to focus if I was going to get out of this.

I had to continually fight the urge to panic and the urge to lash out for the shore, which would have been fatal.

I was not a strong swimmer so I tried floating on my back for a while. I then turned back over and started doggy paddling, all the time trying to conserve energy while edging ever closer to the shore.

I was away from the Catholic faith at this time and the thought of praying did not even occur to me. So I doggy paddled, realising that at every minute I was getting more and more tired, but I was also getting closer to the shore. I kept scanning the shore for a friendly face. I was in Germany and didn’t have the language.

Eventually, almost exhausted, I was close enough to the shore to recognise a friend of my sister, I think his name was Dieter. He spoke no English. I summoned my remaining strength and cried out to him, waving my hands. He saw me, didn’t realise I was struggling, smiled and waved back. I went under the water for the first time swallowing a little.

I came back up fighting what was now an extreme urge to panic, and I waved at Dieter again shouting

14 GUARD YOUR FAITH ‘HELP’. He must have seen the look of desperation in my face for he raced to the water, dived in, and began swimming towards me. I doggy paddled and waited for him to reach me.

As soon as he got close enough, I threw both of my arms around his neck and locked them tight around him. Thank God he was a strong swimmer and obviously had training in life-guarding. He thumped my shoulder to break my grip and then very firmly placed my hand on his shoulder and he began swimming for the shore. I will never forget the feeling of his strength and the calming effect it had on me as I realised that I was going to make it, so long as I did not hinder his efforts. I kicked my legs out behind me in the water.

The sense of relief when we made it to shore cannot be described. I stood for ages, bent over, with my hands on my knees just glad to be alive. I thanked Dieter as best I could given the language barrier, and I told my sister what had happened. I’m not sure if she ever realised how serious the situation had been and how close I came to drowning. I never told anyone else in my family of this experience and when I arrived back home to Ireland, I simply picked up living my life where I left off. But it had an effect on me.

Many years later, after my reversion to the Catholic Faith, I got married to a good Catholic woman who loved swimming, but for many years I always made excuses as to why I wouldn’t get in the water when we took our now growing family to the beach. One day I admitted to myself, and then to my wife that I realised I was afraid of the water. We lived quite close to the sea at that time and there was one of those beaches nearby which is very safe for children as the water is quite shallow for a long way out from the shore. I still remember the day that I decided to face my

Catholic Voice irrational though understandable fear of the water. We went to the shallow water beach, and I told my wife that I was not leaving until I had had a swim and to just leave me there to my own devices. I was at least an hour standing and pacing in the water before I plucked up the courage to take the plunge, but I did it, I overcame the fear and whilst I am still not a strong swimmer and it is still not my favourite pastime, I am no longer afraid of the water.

I had not intended writing that story to you Steve, but I woke up thinking of your struggle and wondering how I could be of help. Perhaps there are similarities in my story of nearly drowning and your own situation.

The water was not my enemy even though I nearly drowned. The Catholic Church is not your enemy Steve, but if you don’t understand it, you could drown.

Too often, I think we men try to over rationalise the Catholic Faith. We are looking for solid proof as to her claims to be the one true Church, to have infallibility, in order to be able to submit to her teachings. But that is not the deal that God offers to us through His Catholic Church. He will not accept us if we will only accept Him based on our having reasoned our way through to the Church. “God, I accept you and your church because you conform to what I have reasoned in my mind that you should be”.

It is like the story told of St Augustine, when he was trying to write his treatise on the Holy Trinity.

He was walking along a beach and he came across a young boy filling a hole in the sand with sea water from a bucket. When St Augustine asked him what he was doing the boy replied, “I am going to put the sea into this hole’.

St Augustine told the boy that what he was trying to do was impossible.

The story goes that the boy replied,

18th June 2021 “I have a better chance of putting the sea into this hole in the sand, then you have of trying to fit the Holy Trinity into that puny mind of yours’. The boy then disappeared and St Augustine realised that it must have been an angel.

The point of this story is, that we cannot compress God and His Catholic Church to conform them to our very limited rational human minds. This is not to deny reason, but to recognise its limits when we are dealing with the infinite God, creator of the universe and founder of the One True, Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is only darkness.

God has given all of us free will, but in order for us to exercise it in relation to God, we must be free to choose to reject God. A terrifying thought but a founding principle of the Catholic Faith. All of us are put to the test to see if we will choose God. Sometimes, I think that God allows himself to be disguised in order to test our loyalty to Him. Do we love Him because of Who He Is, or do we love Him because of the benefits to us? The way I have sometimes imagined this test is for a child to be offered a choice between an icecream and some cow-dung. God is in the dung, not the ice-cream and the child who chooses the dung has made a real choice for God because he has done it despite the appearance of filth. A simplistic example but a way to demonstrate that the child has chosen God not for the benefits to him, but because of Who God Is. We must learn to develop a supernatural outlook on the world, to see beyond the seemingly endless scandals and to know that above the clouds of scandal and moral corruption, God still smiles on the world and He still loves us.

We should not be surprised at the apparent state of the Catholic

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Church in her human members, but we must remember that the spiritual entity of the Catholic Church, founded by Jesus Christ, always retains her spotless purity, her indefectibility, and against her the gates of hell will not prevail. We have Christ’s Word on that.

Christ has not left us without warning us of what is to come.

Read and meditate upon chapter 24 of St Matthew’s Gospel and you will understand what we are living through. “And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) Is this not where we are at? Iniquity abounds, and the charity of many has grown cold. Let us strive to preserve the ‘heat’ of our charity.

Christ also gives us what I consider to be the most frightening piece of scripture in Matthew chapter 24 “And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved:” (Matthew 24:22) Contact: John Lacken Tel: 085-1208779 E-mail: secretary@lumenfidei.ie

Christ tells us to stay put - “But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) and “but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.”

(Matthew 24:22) Given the darkness of the hour, I have also added a recommendation to my advice to people to read and meditate on Matthew chapter 24.

Afterwards, I recommend reading and meditating on Matthew chapter 6:24-34 - the piece my wife and I chose for our wedding. Christ tells us not to worry about worldly things but to seek first His Kingdom and He promises to give us all that we need to get to Heaven. In these dark times our focus must remain on Christ and His cross and we must seek first His Kingdom - which is to focus on the salvation of souls.

I also find great consolation in the Psalms and in the simple version of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady - which consists in reciting seven



Hail Marys each day for each of her sorrows.”

In writing this, it was interesting for me to recall that event in my life which happened almost forty years ago. As I said, I had fallen away from the Catholic faith and, whilst I cannot be sure, it is doubtful that I was in the state of grace at that time.

Perhaps there were many coincidences, but it is certain that there were also supernatural forces at play including my guardian angel looking after me. Thank God I did not drown, but this once again reveals the extent of God’s love for us and the great need to keep ourselves in the state of grace. In these times, where we have seen how quickly we can be deprived of access to the Sacraments, it is important to keep nourishing our spiritual life.

May God bless you CV316 - May - June 2021

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16 SACRED HEART MONTH

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

The Catholic Response To “Pride Month” John A Monaco

Several Catholic school boards in Canada announced that they will require the LGBT rainbow flag to be flown outside all of their schools, the vast majority of them being elementary schools. The Toronto Catholic District School Board — which boasts a population of over 91,000 students — has publicly clashed with Cardinal Collins, who requested that the Catechism section on homosexuality be read at the school board meeting.

Unsurprisingly, the school board refused.

Eastward, in Montreal, at the beautiful Church of St. Peter the Apostle, one finds the LGBT colours draped from the heights of the church to the sanctuary lamp chandelier.

The same coloured flag hung from churches in Austria and Germany following the recent CDF ruling on the impossibility of blessing samesex unions.

While Catholic schools and churches in the Rhineland obstinately rejecting Church teaching is nothing new, this is simply the latest instalment in what seems to be a never-ending saga to squeeze “inclusivity,” “progress,” and “acceptance” into Catholic spaces. Readers need not to be reminded of Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s near-obsession with pushing the LGBT agenda in the Church.

Even in countries typically lauded for their conservative Christianity (Poland, Hungary, Romania), each year finds more and more people participating in pro-gay activities and demonstrations. And every year, especially with the beginning of June, we are subjected to relentless liberal Catholic arguments in support of “Pride Month.” Even when a bishop warns the faithful

to avoid Pride Month activities, he receives a slew of angry comments, predictable and yet ironic from the community of “inclusiveness” and “toleration.”

For those who celebrate “Pride Month,” it is not enough that samesex unions must receive the title of legal “marriage,” or that persons with same-sex attractions are treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”

Corporations and institutions push their rainbow-coloured products, whether clothing or food, and employees who refuse to wear Pride apparel are in danger of termination.

All people worship something, and for those who offer sacrifices at the rainbow altar, the sight of those who do not is reprehensible. Those who refuse to participate, celebrate, and applaud homosexual behaviour are thus heretics and should be burned, “cancelled,” and “dragged,” both in the virtual and in-person realms.

What is the Catholic response to “Pride Month,” then?

Aggressive protest measures, such as burning the rainbow flag, will

only result in imprisonment. But as the oft-quoted motto goes, “silence is violence”; and to remain silent in the wake of a growing LGBT movement is to show one’s apathy and complicity in it. An appropriate and prudent response is required, one that will be consistent with traditional Catholic moral teaching and living. Three responses come to mind: prayer, penance, and proselytisation.

It goes without saying that prayer is essential to the life of any Catholic.

Prayer, in itself, may take many forms — our prayer may be mental, vocal, imaginative, devotional, liturgical, communal. Each of us have our own preferred methods and established habits.

What I suggest for June, then, is not merely to pray (I take that as a given), but to focus and add to our spiritual lives by praying for those who experience same-sex attractions and those involved in the homosexual lifestyle. This should not be interpreted in a condescending way (“I’ll pray for you, sinner!”), but rather in a truly loving way. Whether in our

18th June 2021 recitation of the rosary, Eucharistic adoration, or morning and nighttime prayers, let us make a conscious effort to bring same-sex attracted men and women — perhaps our friends, maybe our enemies — to the Lord by our intercession.

If June is a month of “pride” for the LGBT community, Catholics should counter the celebrated vice of pride with the oft-scorned virtue of humility. There is no better way to grow in this virtue than to remember in our minds and hearts those involved in certain lifestyles and carrying particular crosses.

Moreover, the month of June offers several liturgical feasts and saint commemorations to dedicate ourselves in prayer — from Corpus Christi to the Sacred Heart, to St. Ephrem and St. Aloysius Gonzaga (a patron of purity), and closing the month with the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. While those under the spell of the “prince of this world” (John 14:30) participate in an ersatz “holiday,” Catholics whose hearts are aligned to our Eucharistic King and who enjoy the company of His saints will keep these true holy days.

Penance is often understood as a “making up” for one’s own wrongdoings. However, a true definition of penance avoids individualism. While we are solely to confess our own sins in the Sacrament of Penance, we are encouraged by the tradition to not only do penance for ourselves but for the whole world. Even if we ourselves are not involved in homosexual activity, we still are connected to those who are by virtue of our common humanity and, in many cases, our shared baptism.

We need not to be guilty of a specific wrongdoing to perform penance in satisfaction for the sins of others, especially for those sins which cry

Catholic Voice out to heaven for vengeance. After all, if Christ —who is sinless — suffered out of love for all humanity — how much more is it appropriate for we — who are sinners — to perform acts of voluntary penance on behalf of our fellow sinners?

Admittedly, this is not a popular concept today. But it nonetheless remains true.

If we are not embracing a form of voluntary penance, let us begin; if we already have fasting and penitential activity as part of our routine, perhaps it would be appropriate to direct it toward the conversion of others in addition to ourselves.

The denial of licit pleasures during the month of June can be offered to the Lord in reparation for those who engage in illicit behaviours, further distancing themselves from friendship with Him. The LGBT movement is powerful and influential, insidiously infecting all ranks in the Church. Some demons can only be expelled by “prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:28-29), so let us not avoid any aspect of spiritual combat in our fight against those who celebrate and promote homosexual activity.

The final suggestion I have is that of proselytisation. This is often considered a dirty word, especially in the post-conciliar epoch. Pope Francis has repeatedly warned against proselytisation, preferring the more neutral term “evangelisation” and “witness.”

However, by proselytisation, I am referring to its literal, etymological definition — coming from the Greek word prosêlutos meaning “to come over/towards.” In ancient times, it was understood to refer to someone who leaves one community for another, such as a Gentile convert to Judaism. Despite numerous attempts to suggest the contrary, one cannot simultaneously celebrate homosexual activity and

SACRED HEART MONTH 17 remain committed to the teachings of Christ’s Church.

Whatever the fruits of the “New Evangelisation,” it cannot include in them the conversion of society — if not all bishops and clergy in the Church — to the truth of human sexuality as illuminated by Christian identity. In fact, I would go as far to suggest that attempts by some Catholics to weaken Church teaching on homosexuality in the name of “accompaniment” and “dialogue” are more worthy of damnation than anything one might witness at any given “Pride” parade.

There are legitimate ministries and apostolates which minister to those with same-sex attraction, including Courage International, and these efforts should be lauded and supported. Throughout our lives — and especially during the month of June — Catholics are called to witness to the love and truth of Christ. Just as in the example of St. Boniface (June 5), this witness can only bear fruit when it is done wholeheartedly and without concession to error. The Church must proselytise, providing the reasons and means of “coming over” from lifestyles rooted in sin, ignorance, and error to the life of graced virtue in Christ.

This June, let us turn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the precious abode of mercy and compassion. During a month where “love” is radically redefined to include its opposite, Catholics must turn to the Sacred Heart, where love is manifested in its fullness. Those persons with same-sex inclinations are to be loved; they are indeed our brothers and sisters. It is out of Christian charity that we find renewed purpose in our prayer, penance, and proselytisation. During this month of “pride,” Catholics must make June a month of humility, so that we — and God-willing, all of His children — may pray, “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.”

18 BIBLE BANNED

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Quoting The Bible (But Not The Koran) Is Now A Crime In Britain Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Last time I told the story of how the governors of the once-Christian Trent College, a boys’ school in Nottinghamshire, had sacked their chaplain for having preached a sermon saying that pupils should feel free to adhere to the Church’s teaching that homosexuality was wrong.

This issue, an even more shocking story. Some weeks ago a Methodist preacher, Pastor Sherwood, and his colleague Pastor Simpson were preaching in the street outside a London Underground station in the Prime Minister’s constituency, when three police told Pastor Sherwood to stop and come down off his soap-box.

His crime? He was preaching on a passage from Genesis Chapter 1:2628 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Pastor Simpson says that Pastor Sherwood’s interpretation of this passage was as follows: “God’s design in creating mankind was to set human beings in families, headed by a father and a mother, not by two fathers or by two mothers. The distinction within mankind of just two genders, male and female, made in the image of God, constitutes the essence of God’s created order.”

Police approached the two preachers and told them three complaints had been made about their street sermon. A police officer warned them that they should avoid making any “homophobic statements” and that there was “no freedom to make statements which offend people”.

Eventually he told Pastor Sherwood, 71, that he was under arrest. The arresting officer then committed the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, in that Pastor Sherwood later reported damage to his wrist and elbow.

The offence was filmed by an audibly shocked passer-by. One had hoped that the George Floyd case would have alerted police worldwide to the likelihood that brutality on the street would be recorded and made public, so that they might conduct themselves more lawfully.

3.

4.

5.

I have watched the video footage several times with some care. The following facts emerge: 1. The arresting officer made not the slightest attempt to keep his temper.

2. The arresting officer peremptorily and angrily – nay, hysterically

6.

– shouted at Pastor Sherwood four or five times within only 16 seconds that he must come down from his preaching stool, visibly astonishing and terrifying that elderly gentleman and giving him no time to collect his thoughts or to finish his attempted response to the demand that he must come down.

The arresting officer then grabbed Pastor Sherwood by his left wrist, jerked his arm sharply and pulled him violently and suddenly down from his stool.

Had another police officer not succeeded in catching Pastor Sherwood as he was dragged off the stool, he might well have been flung to the ground.

Pastor Sherwood was plainly baffled and terrified. He offered no resistance of any kind. I watched with particular care to see whether Pastor Sherwood raised either of his arms, but he kept them hanging straight down.

When I was trained in riot control, I was taught that those who kept their hands below their waists were far less likely to be a threat than those who raised them.

However, the arresting officer, by this time facing Pastor Sherwood, took the Pastor’s left hand with

18th June 2021

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Catholic Voice

his own left hand and swept it violently outward and upward to his own right and to Pastor Sherwood’s left, wrenching the Pastor’s elbow. In my first aid training, I was taught that elderly people (the Pastor is 71) should be treated with great gentleness and care.

7. The arresting officer, holding Pastor Sherwood’s left arm up with his own left hand, suddenly, deliberately and viciously swept up his own right hand, which he had previously drawn back as far as his waist, and struck Pastor Sherwood’s left arm just by the wrist, following through the stroke and forcing Pastor Sherwood’s left hand precipitately downward.

8. The arresting officer then kicked Pastor Sherwood’s left leg with his right leg. This kick may have been inadvertent, but, if it was, it merely serves to illustrate both the violence of the arresting officer’s cruel manipulation of the Pastor’s left arm and the arresting officer’s failure to exercise normal caution and respect, particularly when dealing with a senior citizen.

9. The combination of the blow and the kick were so violent that they caused Pastor Sherwood to collapse into the arresting officer’s arms.

10. The bystander filming the event gasped with audible horror the moment the blow and the kick were delivered. Then, in an attempt to save Pastor Sherwood, she cried out several times to the police, “You’re on camera!

You’re on camera!”

11. An elderly lady standing close to the police thereupon reached out courageously to try to restrain their violent behaviour.

12. Both officers then wrenched Pastor Sherwood around, again with what appeared to be altogether unnecessary violence, and, with a third officer, surrounded him so that he could not be seen, manhandled him and hustled him away.

Pastor Simpson said: “This dignified man of God, who is in his early 70s, was marched off to a nearby police car, as one of the

helpers from my church cried out, ‘What has happened to us as a nation that a man can no longer preach from the Bible?”

Pastor Simpson later said the police had imprisoned Pastor Sherwood for 21 hours, and had subjected him to hostile interrogation. At one point an officer asked him what he would say if his son were homosexual. He was eventually released, but may yet face charges.

Now for the other side of the story, such as it is. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “At 13:35hrs on Friday, 23 April, officers on patrol were flagged down by a member of the public who made them aware of a man allegedly making homophobic comments close to Uxbridge Underground Station.

“A number of other people also approached the officers with concerns about the man’s language. [From the above evidence, your force’s publicrelations spin-doctors have used “a number of” to imply a substantial number when in fact only two or three other people had approached the police.]

“Officers spoke with the 71-yearold man and he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.” From another source: “A Metropolitan Police spokesman said, ‘The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards have since assessed the footage and found no indication of misconduct. The arrest will not be subject to a full review.’”

I wrote to the Metropolitan Police Kommissar to draw her attention to the following – 1. That the arresting officer had committed assault occasioning actual bodily harm;

2. That the other officers present were guilty of aiding and abetting the assault; 3. That the arresting officer was guilty of threatening and abusive language; 4. That the Metropolitan Police had falsely arrested Pastor Sherwood; 5. That the Metropolitan Police had falsely imprisoned Pastor Sherwood.

I recommended that another force should be called in to investigate.

Eventually a chief superintendent replied that the police would do no such thing. Another policeman then replied refusing my freedom-ofinformation request about relevant police policies. Meanwhile, police in uniform take part in “Gay” “Pride” demonstrations, and chant “Free Palestine!” at antiSemitic protest. No one arrests or interrogates them, of course.

Britain was once a free country. Take care that Ireland does not follow us into the murderous totalitarianism against which my late beloved father so gallantly fought.

“Offer up everything within your power as a sacrifice to the Lord in an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended; and of supplication for the conversion of sinners. Thus invoke peace upon your country. I am her Guardian Angel; the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings that the Lord may send you.”

(The Angel of Portugal to Fatima children 1915)

20 AN IRISH CATHOLIC?

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN IRISH CATHOLIC? Mary Kearns

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in what is sometimes called “Celtic Christianity.” This is however, a very ill-defined term.

In Ireland, where Christianity generally meant Catholicism, it seems to mean a brand of religion that has its roots in a spirituality that identifies with the natural world in the sense that the ancient druids did.

This identification is always suspect as being pagan because, according to what we have learned about the druids, they were believed to have the ability to become what they identified with, for example, a bird, a tree, a lake or a river. Whatever demonic influence is mixed up here would be impossible to discern but we need to be certain that this kind of identification has nothing whatever to do with Christianity.

Those who like to call themselves Celtic Christians tell us this is the true nature of the Irish. In ancient times we had the Brehon Laws which they say were favourable to women but when Christianity was imposed on us at the coming of St. Patrick, the Irish were subjected to new alien laws. Of course there are more complex reasons.

No-one would deny the legacy of the monasteries which blossomed in Ireland in response to the Christian Faith. Each monastery, under the direction of its Abbot was the centre of culture and learning but was also the fundamental unit involved in the economy, the social life and even the trade of the people who formed a community around each monastery.

Fr. Vincent Twomey, in ‘The End of Irish Catholicism?’, recounts the

story of a lady, recently returned from London who was asked “Are you a Roman Catholic?” to which she replied with some indignation “No, I am an Irish Catholic.”

How many other Irish men and women think of themselves in a similar way? Is our Catholicism almost synonymous with our national identity? To be an Irish man or woman, at least up to recent times, was to be a Catholic.

Although those outside of the Catholic Church often refer to us as “Roman Catholics” it is not a term we use easily ourselves, at least not in Ireland. Many of us still remember the Reverend Ian Paisley using those words in a derogatory way.

Traditionally we were distinct from Catholics on the European mainland. While being loyal to the Holy Father, there was always something different about the Irish Catholic man and woman.

There are many reasons for this.

We are a nation that has been subjected to various colonisations but so were most European countries and as in Ireland, each new invader left its imprint. Those who have had the privilege of visiting some of the great cathedrals of Europe are able to appreciate the great treasures, art and architecture that are a witness to a Catholicism of which Ireland is mostly bereft.

We often see liturgical practices where the sense of Irish spirituality is evident. It appears that those who plan and carry out these activities usually claim a distinctly “Celtic” component, claiming that the official Church fails to recognise.

This makes the Irish different from Catholics of other nations but the attempt fails because it lacks integrity. Pagan practices and improvised ceremonies had never been included the official liturgy of the Church and even in the earliest times, liturgy was always in Latin.

The Gallican Rite, to which the Celtic was closely related, did not contain elements of pagan superstition. In

18th June 2021 addition, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy states that cultural diversity can only be incorporated into the Church if it is in harmony with the true and authentic spirit of the liturgy.

It is a sad irony that while there is an attempt to make religion pastorally relevant, no account is taken of that fact that folk customs had always been intertwined around major Church feasts. When the feast loses its traditional relevance as has been the case with the major feasts of Ascension, Pentecost and Corpus Christi, the devotional practices are set adrift.

A growing passion for the beauty of the world in which we live and the identification with nature can be inspiring and can bring us closer to the Holy Trinity. It does however have another side that needs to be considered.

In today’s post-modern world the strongest single source in the revival of interest in paganism, is Celtic legend. As one publisher declared, a book with the word “Celtic” in the title is always sure to sell. This kind of spirituality suits those who claim not to be religious and who have plenty to say against the Catholic Church. They are spiritual they say but have no time for doctrines and dogmas.

AN IRISH CATHOLIC? 21

Catholic Voice remember that it is not all about feelings. Feelings come and go and are not the most reliable judge of truth.

As Christian people we know that God has revealed himself to us and for Catholics there is nothing more important than being in touch with him through the Mass and the sacraments, regardless of how it actually feels at the time.

Let us never forget the very many men and women of Ireland who in the past were martyred for the Faith.

This is the faith of our Fathers and it has nothing to do with druids or bards or fili. It has to do with the doctrine of Holy Mother Church.

How many Catholics today even know the names of the Irish martyrs beatified by Pope John Paul II a few years ago? As Fr. Twomey claims, while there are many monuments recalling the Great Famine, there is little witness to the heroism of the Irish martyrs.

“There is little popular devotion either to the beatified martyrs or to the rest of the 259 men and women who gave their lives for the faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at those places associated with their lives and their heroic deaths. There are few visible memorials to recall the long period of the persecutions, apart from the Mass rocks and holy wells, which today are often neglected.” (The End of Irish Catholicism?)

At the same time as long as our fundamental doctrines remain in place we can learn something from our Celtic heritage. Whether or not we want to claim Celtic roots, we can appraise the beauty of our country with spiritual eyes and allow ourselves to see this as the gift of a loving Father, our Creator.

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

If we are Christians, we are not pagans. We know that God is not nature and that he is not the Universe. He is the Creator of all of nature and is our Father through his Son, Jesus.

A person may well feel he is more in touch with the divine when he climbs a mountain or sits at the sea. Some have even said these experiences bring them closer to God and maybe to some extent that is true. Nevertheless, we must

Christ Enthroned - from the Book of Kells

22 TRUE MARTYRDOM

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

How Not To Be a Martyr Rob Marco A friend once told me, “You don’t have to go looking for suffering; if you’re living the Christian life, it will find you.”

Zeal is a necessary virtue for living a Christian life. “Zealot” sometimes has a negative connotation as one who is carried away in pursuit of an ideal. The Zealots in the time of Jesus were a religious faction of those who could not bear the yoke of Roman oppression and sought to mobilise politically and overthrow their foreign conquerors. We know from scripture that our Lord was at times overcome with this religious sentiment, as in the Temple in fulfilment of Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Active and Passive Martyrdom One example of this zealous pursuit of suffering and an almost brash fearlessness of conflict was found in St. Eulalia, who was born in 3rd century Spain. At twelve years old, stubborn and bull-headed, she would sneak out of her parents’ house in the middle of the night in search of pagans to defy. She would spit at their idols and defy their threats of torture in order to gain the red crown. Maybe it was youthful zeal or true virtue, but it was certainly an active, rather than passive, approach to gaining the crown of martyrdom.

There is another example (among many) of a more passive martyrdom as seen in the Martyrs of Compiegne. These sixteen Next issue of

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Carmelites were declared enemies of the state during the French Revolution for their religious “fanaticism”, which was simply their observance of their Order’s rule and their life of prayer. They were rounded up and carted off to the public square for execution. As each approached the guillotine, the sisters, composed and with an innerdignity, asked of their Superior, “Permission to die, Mother.” The crowd, rather than being worked into a frenzy, fell silent at the witness.

“martyrdom of witness” (which he himself suffered), martyrdom is not always defined in terms of the shedding of blood. Sometimes simply living the Christian life well will cost us our reputation and good name, our livelihood, and our standing among others. But sometimes in our good Christian zeal and desire to wear the crown, perhaps before it is earned, we look for ways to paint ourselves with the blood of martyrdom when it isn’t yet deserved.

For

example,

if

we

receive

Cancel Culture and False Martyrdom antagonistic comments in response

One of the unfortunate effects of our current cancel culture is that Christians and conservatives have become hyper-sensitive to perceived threats against them. Not that there aren’t legitimate causes for concern.

And we are, in fact, called to “die daily” in Christ as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, for we know we will be raised with Him if we fight well and die in a state of grace.

to a tweet, or behave in a brusque and confrontational manner and get push-back, we can sometimes paint the picture that we are being “persecuted for the sake of righteousness,” when in fact it may be our unhelpful behaviour or posture that brings on such antagonism.

In the Gospels, when Christ stood accused before Pilate, “he opened As Servant of God, Fr. John Hardon, not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). There described in his writings on the is power in His silence. Christ’s

18th June 2021 sacrifice on the Cross was not a personal or political statement of resistance as with the Zealots, but the fulfilment of God’s will and plan for the salvation of mankind.

As it is written, “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

The Enemy In the fourth chapter of his treatise On The Duties of the Clergy, St. Ambrose lays out how the Enemy uses our passions and our words of expression against us through temptation. Social media, for all its merits, is often a fetid swamp of temptation to sins against the tongue, to lack of charity, rash judgment, and passion contrary to reason. It takes a very restrained man to navigate it, for in the virtues Ambrose extols – mildness, gentleness, modesty, temperance, patience – we are often sorely lacking.

Catholic Voice If any one takes heed to this, he will be mild, gentle, modest.

For in guarding his mouth, and restraining his tongue, and in not speaking before examining, pondering, and weighing his words — as to whether this should be said, that should be answered, or whether it be a suitable time for this remark — he certainly is practicing modesty, gentleness, patience. So he will not burst out into speech through displeasure or anger, nor give sign of any passion in his words, nor proclaim that the flames of lust are burning in his language, or that the incentives of wrath are present in what he says.

Let him act thus for fear that his words, which ought to grace his inner life, should at the last plainly show and prove that there is some vice in his morals.

For then especially does the enemy lay his plans, when he sees

TRUE MARTYRDOM 23 passions engendered in us; then he supplies tinder; then he lays snares. Wherefore the prophet says not without cause, as we heard read today: Surely He has delivered me from the snare of the hunter and from the hard word.

Symmachus said this means the word of provocation; others the word that brings disquiet. The snare of the enemy is our speech — but that itself is also just as much an enemy to us. Too often we say something that our foe takes hold of, and whereby he wounds us as though by our own sword. How far better it is to perish by the sword of others than by our own!

Accordingly the enemy tests our arms and clashes together his weapons. If he sees that I am disturbed, he implants the points of his darts, so as to raise a crop of quarrels. If I utter an unseemly word, he sets his snare. Then he

24 TRUE MARTYRDOM

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

puts before me the opportunity for revenge as a bait, so that in desiring to be revenged, I may put myself in the snare, and draw the death-knot tight for myself. If any one feels this enemy is near, he ought to give greater heed to his mouth, lest he make room for the enemy; but not many see him. (4.14-16) Assuming the role of a martyr when it is not warranted can often lead to self-righteousness and religious pride. It “puffs up” under religious guise, and, when fuelled by the fire of followers cheering us on, we can unwittingly become ensnared in the Enemy’s trap if we are not careful. A true martyrdom of witness doesn’t put the focus on oneself or what one is suffering but reflects everything back to Christ, who suffered perfectly and gave us the example of a lamb being led to the slaughter – acts that are totally antithetical to the worldly notion of a hero.

Self-Renunciation We may not be called to be heroes or even martyrs (unless God wills it for us), but we are called to first crucify our self-will and die daily, as St. Paul says, in order to lay the groundwork of virtue which

The Stoning of St Stephen - Juan de Joanes) (1507 – 1579)

will prepare us if and when we go on trial. At those times, we must speak the words the Spirit gives us, not of our own accord, as it says in Scripture: “At that time the Spirit will tell you what to say” (Luke 12:12).

This self-renunciation can be harder than our trials and travails at the hands of others, because it is hidden and harder to put to death.

Quiet virtue, one that endures suffering, is a powerful source of

conviction towards a world that stands opposed to the things of God. It can bring down revolutions and inspire conversions.

So let’s not play the martyr, even when it may be warranted. Let us be true martyrs by putting to death our self-will, our pride, our need for adulation and support. Let us simply reflect the suffering Christ in our own suffering back to the world to convict and convert it, from the inside out.

18th June 2021

Catholic Voice

MOVING INTO HOPE 25

Moving Past Despair And Towards Hope Renee Rasmussen

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.”

-Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen One could easily agree that 2020, and even the beginning of 2021, has been “Good Friday” for many Catholics.

As the sun begins to shine once more, we look hopefully to the future for our Easter Sunday.

You may not feel hopeful right now.

In fact you may look towards the future and see a continued Good Friday and feel overcome by despair.

I personally find it impossible to look at the news or scroll through social media anymore without feeling angry and lost.

Catholics, more than ever, need joy. We need news that uplifts our hearts and fills our soul with hope.

Of course, we also need truth; we cannot afford to put our heads in the sand and ignore the problems of the world around us. The challenge for Catholics living in a secular world is to find the middle ground between becoming “ignorant” and “obsessed,” and to resist succumbing to negativity and doom.

The pandemic may have brought out the Good Friday in many of our lives, but the only way we can move forward to Easter Sunday again is through embracing joy. Was this past year hard?

Absolutely. But saints are made in these sufferings, and we are all called to be saints.

I recently had a conversation with a Sister of Life who, when the conversation turned towards COVID, said “I have to stop being so negative about COVID.” It’s a simple statement, but it stuck with me. It’s time for us to move forward and look back on this past year with hearts filled with gratitude, not bitterness.

When I look at Easter Sunday of 2020, compared to the Easter Sunday I experienced in 2021, I can already feel this attitude change. Last Easter, I was at home making sugar cookie bars and tea for my mom, who was traveling to visit her father after a

family emergency. This year, I spent the Triduum attending the Mass in the Extraordinary Form in person at a local parish. The difference in circumstances and festivity between these two years has been stark.

This Easter, when the vigil mass had ended, I walked out of the church with my friends at 3 in the morning as we all yelled “Happy Easter” and celebrated walking back to our dorms. It was truly a joyous occasion, and one drastically different from the one many of us experienced last year. After the Triduum, the parish held a weekly Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form, attended by many college students. These are small examples of the ways Catholic youth are rising up to the challenge and working hard for their Easter Sunday.

This semester, I was able to attend classes in person after almost 9 months on Zoom. During the pandemic, I started a podcast with my best friend. Back home, my mother inspires me by attending a daily Rosary at our local parish with a group of women that started as a way to pray for the opening of the churches and now continues before daily mass as a form of prayer and community.

Catholics everywhere are rising up and reclaiming the Church, ready to fight for what they know to be true.

There is a reason to have hope even when the media, Twitter, and all of society screams at you to lose it. You may still be fighting through your Good Friday. Perhaps this is simply the beginning of this fight for us all.

But as I look back on this past year and forward towards the next, I know in my soul that we will have our Easter Sunday and our Church will triumph.

Finding joy in a secular world is not an easy task. The things society tells us will make us happy never do, and although we may know that such momentary pleasures are fleeting, it is hard to fight the world everyday.

Still, true happiness can only be found through suffering and the carrying of the cross. But the good news is we never have to carry our cross alone.

Our Lord is behind us, constantly helping us pick up our crosses and move forward towards true joy.

When I struggle to find joy during dark times, I look towards Our Lady, a woman who suffered immense pain through the death of her Son, and yet she exhibited such joy. She is our loving mother who smiles down upon us from Heaven. When joy is hard to find, look up towards her smiling face. I promise you will find hope in her motherly embrace.

Through Jesus and Mary, we will have our Easter Sunday.

26 CORRUPTING LANGUAGE

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

Why Catholics Need To Return To The Catechism Abigail C. R. Gripshover

The Catechism: An Underrated Resource The Catechism of the Catholic Church may not seem like a priority in these crazy times. Keeping up with breaking news and its impact on our family lives is a full-time job!

Besides, the long season of Ordinary Time feels like a spiritual vacation.

It is scattered with solemnities, but not as intense as the seasons on either side of it. And with digital ways to learn about the Faith, a thick book can seem archaic and outdated.

I used to think this way. I assumed the Catechism was full of complicated language and philosophical arguments. Like an encyclopedia, I considered it an index and not spiritual reading.

That is until I opened it. Once I did, I was stunned. I came to find out, the Catechism is not a dusty volume of difficult text. The Catechism is a rich exposition of the Catholic Church’s teachings and a story about God’s love for us!

The Go-To for Catholic Teaching The more of the Catechism I read, the more I realise that Catholics need to rediscover it. Catholic Catechisms should be one of the most-used books on the shelves in our homes.

Though the Catechism does not hold the Bible’s level of authority, it does O Jesus, it is for the love of Thee, in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the conversion of poor sinners [that I do this]. Amen.

Our Lady of Fatima - June 13th, 1917.

present the dogma of the Church in a reliable way.

In answering a question about the Catechism’s authority, Catholic apologist Jim Blackburn answered: Whatever the underlying degree of authority any given doctrine may carry, Pope John Paul II called the Catechism “a statement of the Church’s faith and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined

by Sacred Scripture, the apostolic Tradition, and the Church’s magisterium” (Fidei Depositum 3).

He declared it to be “a sure norm for teaching the faith.”

Catholics need to start going to their Catechisms like Protestants go to their Bibles: all the time! (Catholics should ALSO be going to their Bibles, just in case that wasn’t clear.)

By learning the truths of the Church, we can fall in love with her. Then, we can renew our sense of calling to participate in God’s design. We can also prepare to defend the Church in modern conversations. It should be something we are comfortable opening and referencing at will.

The Catechism is a Compilation For those concerned about the author and origin of the Catechism, worry not! Far from the written work of a few authority figures of the time, this edition of the Catechism is the result of six years of work. It was a special project of Pope John Paul II’s and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) chaired the commission that put together early drafts.

This Catechism pulls from earlier catechisms. It recognises Sacred

Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Church’s Magisterium as the authorities informing the text. To quote from its Prologue: This catechism aims at presenting an organic synthesis of the essential and fundamental contents of Catholic doctrine, as regards both faith and morals, in the light of the Second Vatican Council and the whole of the Church’s Tradition. Its principal sources are the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the liturgy, and the Church’s Magisterium.

It is intended to serve “as a point of reference for the catechisms or compendia that are composed in the various countries.” CCC 11 In other words, the Catechism is not the Church ordering her followers around in a show of power or control.

The Catechism is the Church gifting her followers and those curious about her a single place to start. In it, we can learn about her teachings. We can also find additional resources to keep learning more about the Faith and God’s love for us.

18th June 2021

CORRUPTING LANGUAGE 27

Catholic Voice

Easy Starting Points So, where do you start? Maybe you have little time or find the size of the book intimidating. The Church has designed two easy ways to start: 1. The “In Brief” Sections of the Catechism Every section of the Catechism ends with an “In Brief” section. These sections are a few paragraphs that summarise everything explained in the preceding section. The Church designed these sections for catechists to memorise and the faithful to study with ease. The summary of about 30 pages of the Catechism equals three to five “In Brief” sections, on average.

2. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a 175

page volume intended to further summarise the Catechism itself.

Pope Benedict XVI describes it as “in concise form, all the essential and fundamental elements of the Church’s faith, thus constituting, as my Predecessor had wished, a kind of vademecum which allows believers and non-believers alike to behold the entire panorama of the Catholic faith.” (Reference pg. xii in this edition of the Compendium) Unlike the Catechism, this book is small enough to carry around and read in short bursts while going about your day.

Embrace the Ordinary Time

Catechism

this

Time is your invitation to become comfortable with the Catechism.

Too many of us do not know our faith well enough to give it a fighting chance. This Ordinary Time, let’s change that as we fall in love with the Bride of Christ again. You don’t have to do it alone. If you want support and community, you can join me as I read through the Catechism this Ordinary Time.

I invite you to rediscover the Extraordinary Church with me. May God bless us all in our faith journeys and remind us of our calling to be witnesses to His Son and the Church.

There is so much misinformation about the Catholic Church in the news and across social media. If you are tired of feeling hurt and confused by it all, then it’s time to learn the Faith. Perhaps, this long Ordinary

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

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

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God With thy whole heart, And with thy whole soul, And with thy whole mind.

This is the greatest And the first commandment.

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 years. He died on January 2, 1916 at 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.

‘La Revista Popular’ for over forty

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28 CONVERSION

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

My Path To Freedom: A Gay Catholic Man’s Story Guest Contributor

Steven (name changed to protect identity) felt ashamed and isolated by his same-sex attraction. Then he discovered the Catholic faith.

I’m 19-years old and first realised I was sexually attracted to men as I hit puberty.

I was uncomfortable with these feelings because I never felt they were the true me.

I was 11 when I discovered internet pornography. I was immediately drawn to it, always yearning to look at more images of men.

Fleeing Reality I compared myself constantly to the images on screen and never felt good enough in my masculine identity.

I now see that these images led me further away from reality and deeper into a world of fantasy.

I was often bullied in lower primary school and called gay by other boys who would also tease me in degrading ways. This led me to isolate in upper primary school, so

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I never connected significantly with any of my peers. I always felt sidelined and different to other males.

At home, my run-to person was my mother. I shared minimally with her because of the shame connected to what was happening within me and around me.

Father Emotionally Unavailable I perceived my dad to be emotionally unavailable, so I never reached out to him as the significant older male and role model in my life.

I had built up a protective wall against other men over time and had taken on a feminine outlook to help me to deal with challenges that would arise. I now see how this was detrimental to my male development.

For a brief time around age 14, I felt attracted to a girl in high school. I tried to get her to be interested in me, but she rejected me. This hurt me deeply. What limited masculinity I felt at the time was suddenly crushed, making me doubt whether I would ever be good enough to date girls.

The Psychological Cost Between being bullied, consuming pornography and feeling emotionally isolated from my father I drifted into depression.

At 16, my mental health began to deteriorate. I broke down and told my mum about my same-sex attraction.

My doctor prescribed me with anti-depressants, but these had a worsening effect on me.

At 17, I began to see a psychiatrist who put me on different medication. I would rarely see him but, when I did, he too wrote out prescriptions for me.

I became heavily medicated. No one ever took the time to consider any deeper issues relating to my past.

Christians Facing Their Lgbt Issues I then stumbled across a support group which I attended for a few sessions made up of people who had been in long-term relationships in the LGBT lifestyle. They shared their regrets and how they had had years stripped from their lives, but how Jesus was now bringing them hope.

I continued to be consumed with pornography. I also began to educate myself about the gay community and to engage online in random chats with other gay guys.

At age 18, I returned to the support group. This time, I felt safe enough to truly open up and talk about

18th June 2021

CONVERSION 29

Catholic Voice

everything same-sex related. I felt listened to at last. Nothing was excluded from our conversations.

I was accepted. I belonged. I had people who honoured me as a person, who didn’t see me as a piece of flesh to be devoured. Our focus was on Jesus, not on each other.

Today, some say I have failed to embrace my true self and must have internalised homophobia. I see this as a projection onto me of their own bigoted discomfort with my informed decisions.

I have no problem accepting and facing my same-sex erotic feelings.

Even with this full acceptance, I know deep down that this is not the way I was created to be. Even some gay advocates believe no one is ‘born gay’.

I’m developing the deep and meaningful heart-to-heart samesex and other-sex friendships that I longed for as a child and teenager.

I’m beginning to address and move beyond the pain and grief that I’ve dragged around all my life.

Beginnings are slow but real, and good fruit is starting to appear.

Powerful aids: Adoration, Rosary and Confession

the

Regular visits to the Blessed Sacrament, meditating on Jesus’ Passion especially through the Rosary, and frequent confession all bring me profound solace.

Some of these other teens, whose lives are also improving, are having again to fight off depression because of threats being made against their personal lives by politicians criminalising therapy and prayer.

I am in touch with other young adults who, like me, feel threatened and scared as a results of laws which stop us from accessing healthy support which help us to rise above the pain and desperation we’ve felt for years.

I have a right to get well, to seek out therapy, support, resources, and more access to Jesus’ Presence if I want to. These, often supplied to me through the Catholic Church, help me on my exciting journey into true manhood.

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Fatima Prayer

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended, and through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

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30 BOOKS

Catholic Voice

18th June 2021

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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.”

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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

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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.”

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Welcome To Our New Lourdes Website saintbernadette.info Included are the following: The life and times of St Bernadette: The Importance of the Holy Rosary for our times: The Lourdes Apparitions: The Song of Bernadette Movie: Prayer cards on request and much much more. Contact via email morgansharpesenior@gmail.com

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

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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: Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fortwilliam Belfast - Sunday: 8am & 11am MonWed: 19:00 Thurs: 8am Fridays 19.00 Satrudays 11am 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.

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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

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18th June 2021

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines The question of the use of vaccines, in general, is often at the centre of controversy in the forum of public opinion. In recent months, this Congregation has received several requests for guidance regarding the use of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which, in the course of research and production, employed cell lines drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century. At the same time, diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements in the mass media by bishops, Catholic associations, and experts have raised questions about the morality of the use of these vaccines.

There is already an important pronouncement of the Pontifical Academy for Life on this issue, entitled “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses” (5 June 2005). Further, this Congregation expressed itself on the matter with the Instruction Dignitas Personae (September 8, 2008, cf. nn. 34 and 35). In 2017, the Pontifical Academy for Life returned to the topic with a Note. These documents already offer some general directive criteria.

Since the first vaccines against Covid-19 are already available for distribution and administration in various countries, this Congregation desires to offer some indications for clarification of this matter. We do not intend to judge the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, although ethically relevant and necessary, as this evaluation is the responsibility of biomedical researchers and drug agencies. Here, our objective is only to consider the moral aspects of the use of the vaccines against Covid-19 that have been developed from cell lines derived from tissues obtained from two foetuses that were not spontaneously aborted.

1. As the Instruction Dignitas Personae states, in cases where cells from aborted foetuses are employed to create cell lines for use in scientific research, “there exist differing degrees of responsibility”[1] of cooperation in evil. For example,“in organizations where cell lines of illicit origin are being utilized, the responsibility of those who make the decision to use them is not the same as that of those who have no voice in such a decision”.[2] 2. In this sense, when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available (e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated) it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted foetuses in their research and production process.

3. The fundamental reason for considering the use of these vaccines morally licit is that the kind of cooperation in evil (passive material cooperation) in the procured abortion from which these cell lines originate is, on the part of those making use of the resulting vaccines, remote. The moral duty to avoid such passive material cooperation is not obligatory if there is a grave danger, such as the otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent[3]--in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. It must therefore be considered that, in such a case, all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive. It should be emphasized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines.

4. In fact, the licit use of such vaccines does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted foetuses.[4] Both pharmaceutical companies and governmental health agencies are therefore encouraged to produce, approve, distribute and offer ethically acceptable vaccines that do not create problems of conscience for either health care providers or the people to be vaccinated.

5. At the same time, practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good. In the absence of other means to stop or even prevent the epidemic, the common good may recommend vaccination, especially to protect the weakest and most exposed. Those who, however, for reasons of conscience, refuse vaccines produced with cell lines from aborted foetuses, must do their utmost to avoid, by other prophylactic means and appropriate behaviour, becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent. In particular, they must avoid any risk to the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, and who are the most vulnerable.

6. Finally, there is also a moral imperative for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that vaccines, which are effective and safe from a medical point of view, as well as ethically acceptable, are also accessible to the poorest countries in a manner that is not costly for them. The lack of access to vaccines, otherwise, would become another sign of discrimination and injustice that condemns poor countries to continue living in health, economic and social poverty.[5] The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 17 December 2020, examined the present Note and ordered its publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 21 December 2020, Liturgical Memorial of Saint Peter Canisius.

“And Jesus said:

Father, forgive Luis F. Card. Ladaria, S.I.

+ S.E. Mons. Giacomo Morandi them, for they Prefect Titular Archbishop of Cerveteri know not what Secretary _________________________________

they do.

(Luke 23:34)

Image: Emőke Dénes - wikimedia

[1] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Dignitas Personae (8 th December 2008), n. 35; AAS (100), 884.

[2] Ibid, 885.

[3] Cfr. Pontifical Academy for Life, “Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses”, 5th June 2005.

[4] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruct. Dignitas Personae, n. 35: “When the illicit action is endorsed by the laws which regulate healthcare and scientific research, it is necessary to distance oneself from the evil aspects of that system in order not to give the impression of a certain toleration or tacit acceptance of actions which are gravely unjust. Any appearance of acceptance would in fact contribute to the growing indifference to, if not the approval of, such actions in certain medical and political circles”.

[5] Cfr. Francis, Address to the members of the “Banco Farmaceutico” foundation, 19 September 2020.

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