Catholic Voice 30th July 2021 Issue 322

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Issue 322

The Transfiguration - Carl Bloch (1834 - 1890)

St Joseph’s Cord Available now - see page 7

2 EDITORIAL

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

TRADITION Regrettably, the pastoral objective of my Predecessors, who had intended “to do everything possible to ensure that all those who truly possessed the desire for unity would find it possible to remain in this unity or to rediscover it anew”, has often been seriously disregarded.

Anthony Murphy The latest motu proprio of Pope Francis, ‘Traditionis Custodes’, reversing the legislation of his predecessors, St. John Paul II (1984 and 1988) and Benedict XVI (2007), on the use of the Missal of Pope St. Pius V, can only be seen as a contradiction of the two themes of his papacy - Mercy and “who am I to judge”.

It is difficult to read Pope Francis’ letter to bishops without concluding that it is highly judgemental and omits even the smallest gesture of mercy to faithful Catholics who chose to worship using the traditional liturgical books.

According to the pope his main concern and motivation for restricting the “old” Mass is a concern that it has fostered disunity.

In the covering letter to bishops he writes:

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

An opportunity offered by St. John Paul II and, with even greater magnanimity, by Benedict XVI, intended to recover the unity of an ecclesial body with diverse liturgical sensibilities, was exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.

But what exactly are the “disagreements that injure the Church” and which diocese has been exposed to the “peril of division” as a result of making the Latin Mass more widely available.

Over the years I have spoken to many bishops who have introduced the Latin Mass and traditional priestly congregations into their diocese and not one has even hinted at concerns over disunity.

This begs the question where is the pope getting his information from and, while we are told there was a survey conducted, we are not told how many bishops responded nor what the concerns of the bishops who did respond were. This contradicts another hallmark of this papacy, that of transparency.

And surely if the alleged disunity was occurring in local parishes then it would be the responsibility of the local bishop to intervene and correct the situation but we have not seen any examples of this

because it simply does not happen - the accusation of disunity is false and unjust.

It seems that faithful traditional Catholics are to be condemned without trial yet when real disunity and rupture occurs - the call for women’s ordination, flying of LGBT flags, liturgical abuses too numerous to mention etc etc - the “peril of division” is not only ignored but those promoting the division are congratulated and promoted.

It is ironic that a document which purportedly is published in the name of unity is actually so divisive!

The Pope also writes that where the Tridentine rite is followed, such Masses cannot be held in parish churches. Where then are they to be held, in school halls, hotel rooms, car parks - if it were not so sad it would be amusing that the pope of the peripheries is himself pushing faithful Catholics beyond the periphery and into the wilderness.

Those priests already offering the Tridentine Mass must now seek the permission of their bishop to continuing doing so.

The document also makes it difficult if not impossible for diocesan priests to learn the traditional form of the Mass and introduces a highly restrictive and unique requirement that such a priest must not only first get permission from his bishop to

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EDITORIAL 3

30th July 2021 Catholic Voice do so but then the bishop must “consult” with Rome before any approval is given.

from one day to the next,” he observes. Cardinal Sarah was ordained a priest in the Novus Ordo.

So what is now likely to happen in response to this document.

He avoided talking about Francis’ plans to restrict the Roman Liturgy and said the “clerical attitudes” of opposition against the Roman Mass were the “clericalism that Francis has denounced on several occasions.”

Speaking before but aware that the document was about to be published Cardinal Sarah spoke out saying that Summorum Pontificam is irreversible. History will remember Benedict XVI as a great theologian and as the Pope of Summorum Pontificum, Cardinal Robert Sarah told IlTimone.it (July 2).

In the coming days I am sure other prominent voices will speak out against the injustice of the new restrictions.

Cardinal Sarah acknowledged a new generation of young people and families which emerged in the Church “despite intransigent clerical attitudes of opposition” to the Roman Mass.

Meanwhile the first sign from Ireland and the UK is that much will continue as normal, all of the parishes where the Tridentine rite is offered already have the permission and support of the local bishop and several bishops have attended such celebrations. The outcome may be that this messy document is ignored and things continue as before but of course it will be more difficult to establish new Mass centres - though this was ever the case even with Summorum Pontificam.

“This liturgy has a future because it has a past, a history of holiness and beauty that cannot be erased or abolished

In the meantime we should continue to pray for the Pope and our bishops in these difficult times.

He believes that with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum began “a path of liturgical and spiritual reform” which in spite of difficulties, and resistances is “irreversible.”

Catholic Voice Update Dear Reader, We still continue to be adversely affected by the inconsistent covid restrictions.

Events that would usually be advertised in Catholic Voice are not taking place and some parishes have not yet resumed the sale of Catholic newspapers.

Therefore your continued prayerful and financial support is very important to us.

We are also grateful for your ongoing prayers and the many cards and well wishes that Kim has received since her accident nine months ago. Kim’s lengthy rehabilitation continues and despite a few setbacks she is making good progress and is able to walk short distances. Currently she is experiencing some difficulties with her right leg due to the weakness of her left leg so some additional prayers to help her overcome this further challenge would be very welcome.

Yours in Christ Anthony Murphy

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4 HEART OF LOVE

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

The Heart In Holy Scripture Canon de Martin I.C.K.S.P.

What symbol can represent love? The heart, of course.

The heart is what compresses and rejoices in front of the loved one. Moreover, the heart of Jesus represents for us his mercy, his love.

In Scripture, the heart is more than that. The heart is life.

In war or executions, as soon as the heart is pierced, there is no life. As long as the heart beats, the person is among us.

The heart is for them the centre of every man, the inner principle, both physical and spiritual, which makes the unity of man. The Greek words spirit, reason, conscience, can be contained in the Hebrew word for heart. Heart and soul are often used as synonyms. And, as it represents the whole man, the word « heart » for a human being in Hebrew is not the same as that used for the heart of animals.

The heart is the principle of bodily life. “A quiet heart is the life of the body” says the book of Proverbs. (14:30) By taking food man satisfies and strengthens his heart.

But the heart is also the seat of thought, reflection, and also of meditation. In order to reflect on something, one keeps the thought in the heart, like the Blessed Virgin after Jesus’ recovery in the Temple. It is the heart that receives the light of truth and sees it; but to see it, the heart must not be veiled or blinded. In Scripture, a large heart is not a person who loves everyone, but denotes a great intellect, a wise man. A small heart is worthy of a foolish person.

It is interesting that the wise man, when he speaks, does so with his heart. The fool speaks and thinks with his mouth, which is purely external. A flood of words is thus a lack of heart, because they come out of the mouth without passing through the centre, through the man’s intelligence.

The heart is also action. The will. To act effectively one must give one’s whole heart. But in a controlled way. The man who owns his heart is master of himself. He who holds his heart in his right hand is wise, energetic. But the will is free, and can resist outside influences, especially

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God’s commands. This is a hardened heart, like that of Pharaoh, and can go to the point of stone. But if the heart is softened, the will is more docile. God repeatedly says to the prophet Ezekiel: “I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh”, that is, obedient.

But there is more. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees?

“But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.”(Mt, 15, 18-19) Indeed, in the heart we have our good or bad dispositions of soul, passions, feelings. And it is the heart that must be treated for this. If fear dissolves the heart, courage makes its heart like that of a lion (the only animal with which the heart is compared). Pain can trouble, crush and even consume and kill the heart. But what revives it?

Joy. Scripture makes much of the fact that the heart naturally has an evil inclination, original sin. The “uncircumcised” heart naturally gives itself over to evil, and one must “circumcise” one’s heart, as St. Paul says (Rom 2:29) to keep it from evil.

Because the heart knows what is good or evil. In Scripture, it is also the seat of conscience. The heart knows the evil that is in it, which is why it is not good to show our heart to everyone. We must renew it with the help of divine grace, make it pure so that it pleases God. And if we leave it to Him, He can direct it and strengthen it. Saint Paul tells us that the heart is called to become the dwelling place of Jesus Christ. (Eph. 3:17) Finally, we know that Scripture speaks by analogy of the hand of God, the mouth of God, etc. It also speaks of the heart of God. It also speaks of the heart of God. It is a wise heart, which inclines towards man. The man who is “after God’s heart” is the man who pleases God by the use he makes of his gifts. Our Lord presents himself as “humble of heart”. But it is not only the heart that is humble, it is the being. The humility of Christ is in relation to his thoughts, his wills, his affections. That is, his soul, his whole being.

30th July 2021

WHO WILL SAVE THE CHURCH? 5

Catholic Voice

The Laity Will Save The Church Lorrie McNickle

I have been pondering a lot recently about a particular quote from Bishop Fulton Sheen: “Who’s going to save our Church? It’s not our bishops, it’s not our priests and it is not the religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that the priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and the religious act like religious.”

This is an important quote. Many of us seem to think we need to wait around for priests and religious leaders to lead us as Catholics. And while we do need priests to initiate and perform our sacramental tasks, we the laity can - and should - be initiating our own gatherings and events. After all, we are the Church, all of us. We are all called to evangelise and to spread the Gospel. It is a job for us all, and we don’t need clerical permission or support.

There are many things we can do. We can form study and prayer groups. We can gather to watch movies about the Faith. We can partake in group pilgrimages to a special shrines and places of fellowship. We can meditate and prayerfully reflect on our relationships with each other - and most importantly with Christ. We can gather to pray the Rosary together, or the Way of the Cross.

much more enticing and desirable. We are going to be rejected, but so was Christ. In time, the truly Faithful will come to understand and order priorities rightly, and the more opportunities available for that to happen, the more it will.

The laity will save the Church, by bringing holiness and the pursuit of holiness into the everyday events and occasions of our lives. It really isn’t all that difficult and only takes some slight shifts in direction, yet the rewards, Graces and benefits will be out of this world!

These are all things we can do on our own, without support from priests, bishops or religious leaders. In fact, there is great power in rising to the occasions of performing such tasks, and Graces to be found and to benefit from.

It can be more difficult, and the struggle more daunting and frustrating than organising a secular event, but the effort is definitely worth it. Most of us have no problem organising events such as birthday parties, graduation celebrations, dinners, to name just a few. How awesome would it be to focus more on opportunities to unite in Faith, and celebrate and prayerfully reflect on Christ.

Could you consider leaving a bequest for CatholicVoice?

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

How about a girls night to watch a movie about Saint Maria Goretti, or Our Lady of Fatima instead of the trash most of us revel in that don’t bring us any closer A bequest from you in your Last Will and to the Lord, and actually harms us spiritually? How Testament would help us to continue growing about a party to pray the Rosary together, as we share in the publication of Catholic Voice and the Christian fellowship and food.

The two greatest saints in Heaven were not clergy- St. Joseph and our Blessed Mother were laity.

They had no clerical office, yet now hold the highest saintly ranks in Heaven. The laity will save the Church, but we need to refocus our hearts and minds to the next world instead of this world to do that. It’s going to take some sacrifice, and we are going to run up against the competition this world offers up instead, and might seem

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May God bless you for your generosity.

CANCEL CULTURE

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

Canceling Jesus Fr. Michael P. Orsi

Jesus was a thorn in the side of the major establishment players of his day. They ‘cancelled’ him because of it. A recent Gospel reading provides us with an early illustration of “cancel culture.” The evangelist, Mark, describes Jesus preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth. People are surprised at the wisdom of his words, and somehow can’t accept that such insights are coming from a hometown boy.

“Where did he get all this,” they ask. “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary?”

They’re actually offended that he would speak in this manner, and a little uncomfortable with his message. So they refuse to take him seriously. To put it another way, they “cancel” him, because he’s too local.

In response, Jesus offers the timeless observation: “A prophet is not without honour except in his native place…” This is a perfect scripture passage (Mark 6:1-6) for citing to someone who thinks the Bible is no longer relevant to modern life. Heck, we’re up to our ears in “cancel culture” today. Jesus was ahead of the game.

There’s a human tendency to dismiss the views of people who don’t meet expectations about who’s qualified to speak. This is seen in our cultural preoccupation with credentials. Those highly regarded pieces of academic paper usually trump simple wisdom.

Of course, there are times when professional expertise is essential. Uninformed laymen can do serious harm diagnosing illnesses based on information they’ve “Googled.” But there are also times when someone’s accumulated life experience — what used to be called “common sense” — is a far better preparation than formal schooling for making sound judgments or offering wise advice.

These days, the primary concern about “cancel culture” reflects how Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are trying to silence ideas that diverge from the accepted views of the progressive left. Add to that how children are being indoctrinated with Critical Race Theory, along with how both government and our leading institutions promote the idea that western society is fundamentally, irredeemably racist.

There’s good reason to fear that anybody might be “cancelled.”

Our society is coming to resemble the world through which Jesus walked in many uncomfortable ways. We have an intellectual elite, including educators, media, and literary types, whose “correct thinking” and “settled science” are every bit as rigid as how the Scribes and Pharisees interpreted the Torah.

We have our masters of industry and technology who are as singularly focused on protecting their business interests as the Priests and Levites guarded the prerogatives of the Temple.

We have politicians and their operatives who are as obsessed with enlarging their sphere of control and protecting their power as were the Roman occupiers of biblical Palestine.

We even have our equivalents to the Zealots in today’s various radical groups. Their devotion to transforming society is every bit as fanatical as that of those biblical revolutionaries.

All of these groups share a common set of assumptions. And it appears they’ve come to a tacit agreement that voices speaking out in conflict with the prevailing orthodoxy must be silenced.

It’s not just a matter of blocking the flow of information.

Dissenting organisations have seen their operations challenged by legal action (what’s termed “lawfare”). Financial service providers have disrupted their channels of income. Books, media materials, and other products have been banned by major outlets.

Criminal charges have been brought. Facilities have been subject to attack. Individuals have been threatened, and even physically assaulted. Churches and religious organisations have felt these effects as well. We haven’t quite reached the extreme levels of anti-Christian violence as other places (within the past few weeks several churches have been burned in Canada). However there has been vandalism. And religious services have been disrupted.

There have even been occasional church shootings. So far these appear to have been the work of lone crackpots, rather than organised attackers. But that could change.

Jesus was a thorn in the side of the major establishment players of his day. They “cancelled” him because of it.

As his followers, we’re called upon to stand up today for the principles that caused so much consternation back then. And there’s no doubt that’s scary.

But remember, his cancellation didn’t last. In the end he came back in a big way.

LETTERS 7

30th July 20211 Catholic Voice

Letters

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

Root Causes Of Abortion

to a BABY during abortion, they were attacked by prolife groups who said that their message was counterproductive.

As regards the recent letter on abortion, (Catholic Voice), ‘abortion’ is a much-sanitised word for the butchery and dismemberment of a helpless baby. Unless the root causes of abortion are tackled, all other efforts will come to nothing.

It is great that Archbishop Cordileone is speaking out on abortion. Unfortunately, Bishops have spoken out in the past, but this has rarely been followed by appropriate action. Will it be the same again?

Dear Editor,

The root causes are contraception and the destruction of marriage and the family. The rebellion in 1968 by Bishops worldwide, including Ireland, against Church teaching, that is Christ’s teaching, on contraception, as contained in Humanae Vitae, has had a devastating effect on humanity.

Only a minority of Bishops have given the teaching whole–hearted public support. How many of the pro-life groups have tried to deal with the issue frankly?

The writer speaks of Bishops’ and priests’ making their presence felt, e.g. through pro-life demonstration and marches. The Bishops are the successors of the Apostles.

Christ did not tell the Apostles to go on demonstrations and marches. He told them to go and teach all nations.

Besides, it has been shown that politicians take little notice of these demonstrations and marches?

Satan, has, quietly, been attacking and undermining marriage and the family, not with demonstrations and marches, but by chipping away at the foundations. Our The writer of the anonymous letter you published recently Blessed Lady is the One chosen by God to defeat Satan, on abortion (June 18th), comments on late–term abortions’ pray constantly for Her help. being carried out, without anaesthesia. Yet during the Referendum, when people from Canada took the trouble David Kelly to come to Ireland to show the horrors of what happens Dublin The devotion to the Cord of St. Joseph took its rise in Belgium, in 1637, in consequence of a miraculous cure effected by the wearing of this precious girdle. During this year of Saint Joseph you may wish to wear the cord to avail of the GRACES ATTACHED TO THE WEARING OF THE CORD. Graces precious to the piety of St. Joseph’s servants are attached to the wearing of this cord. They are: 1. St. Joseph’s special protection 2. Purity of soul; 3. The grace of chastity; The Cord 4. Final perseverance; 5. Particular assistance at the hour of death.

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8 SEND US GOOD SHEPHERDS

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

The Guiding Nature Of The Church John Kubasak

The nature of the Catholic Church holds many elements together mysteriously. On one hand, the Church is the spotless bride of Christ. On the other hand, those of us that comprise the Church are frequently the opposite of spotless and holy. Even though it has a foot in heaven, it exists on earth for the sake of humanity and its salvation.

There is a wealth of theological themes inherent in the Church Even if one never pursues ecclesiology (the study of the Church) in an academic setting, there is still much we can learn from reflecting on the nature of the Church.

Explaining the Times: Blessings and Warnings Like any good mother, the Church has much to teach us. We have inherited a vast, rich tradition of theology, spirituality, and reflection on the Scriptures from our forbears.

Frankly, we have also inherited a large collection of mistakes, abuses, and self-inflicted wounds. Whether running the race and fighting the good fight or limping along and getting beaten up, the Church can always guide us.

In the Gospels, Jesus uses a number of different images to illustrate the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (see #753-757) notes three images that Lumen Gentium took up: the vineyard, the temple, and the sheepfold. These things give us beautiful imagery and blessings for our edification. At the same time, within these images are warnings. Both the blessings and the warnings lead us to Christ.

Blessings of the Vineyard Jesus gives a number of different images of the vineyard. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Our Lord uses a vineyard in a parable three times (20:1-16, 21:28-31, 21:33-44).

Each of those stories focused on laboUr. The parable of the labourers (20:1-16, RSVCE) in the vineyard showcases God’s superabundant generosity.

The vineyard owner goes out and hires labourers at several hours throughout the day. At the end of the day, the owner gives each labourer the same pay — regardless of their arrival time. This sounds ludicrous, an accounting nightmare, and worst of all, unfair for those that have worked all day.

It challenges every person to humility. Who are we to decide on God’s behalf? The pay scale is Jesus’ nascent teaching on His Divine Mercy. Let us hear this from Our Lord’s mouth, and preach it to the world: it is never too late to say yes to Christ. He does not withhold the heavenly reward to any who call upon His mercy!

In the image of Jesus as the vine, we the branches are grafted onto Him. Our Lord points us to a crucial secret to the spiritual life.

We can no easier do without Christ than a branch could do separated from the vine. Rather than seeing this dependence as a negative, we should instead look at the powerful

grace that has become our ally. With Jesus behind us, we can confidently say with St. Paul, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

The Challenge of the Vineyard The parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) and Jesus’ teaching on the vine (John 15:1-8) both mention fruit. In the parable, the tenants refused to give their landlord the fruit and effectively steal the vineyard. In Jesus’ allegory on the vine, the branches that do not bear fruit are cut away by the vinedresser.

One of the warnings to the presentday Church, first of all, is to not act as the wicked tenants did. We cannot confuse the blessings of God as won by our effort; we cannot tell the Lord to get out of the vineyard without consequence.

Jesus presents this in John 15 as a simple cause and effect: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (15:4). If we cut ourselves off from Him, we will not have life. We do that by forsaking Christ in favour of the world and casting aside the more difficult teachings. We reject Him by changing the definition of sin, or ignoring it completely. None of these things bring us life, and it is foolishness to expect otherwise.

30th July 2021 Catholic Voice Blessings of the Temple The temple in Jerusalem prefigured the Church and was no ordinary house of worship. The Jews believed it to be the dwelling place of God on earth. Through covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, God bound Himself to the people of Israel in a special way, that made them unique. So too has Jesus made us His own people, expanding the definition of the Chosen People from one nation to all nations. He did this through baptism, which is the means of becoming part of the mystical Body of Christ.

St. John records a passage early in his gospel, just after Jesus cleansed the temple of money changers and those who sold animals for sacrifice.

The Jews in the temple demanded a sign as to why Jesus did that. Jesus answered, “’ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ …but he spoke of the temple of his body” (John 2:19-21, RSVCE).

Jesus did not give a full homily on His mystical body, but His apostles provided further explication.

St. Peter urged that we come to Jesus as living stones in a spiritual house, using temple imagery (1 Peter 2:4-5, RSVCE). St. Paul was more direct with the imagery, reminding the Corinthians that they were temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). The apostles teach us that Jesus not only fulfilled the temple in Himself but includes us in that fulfilment: “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22) Jesus invites each person into a relationship–and we should pursue this pearl of great price with our whole heart.

Temple Warnings Almost in the same breath as exhorting us to become living stones, St. Peter takes unbelievers to task. Those who do not believe in Jesus will not encounter a living stone but “a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall’; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do” (1 Peter 2:8).

This verse tells of a personal fall, but the temple itself was also vulnerable. For this we turn to history: the temple of Solomon was burned to the ground by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and the Herodian (second) temple was razed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Jesus himself foretold the destruction of the second temple: “As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Luke 21:6).

The warning applies to every person in every age. Being members of Christ’s body does not give us a free pass into heaven. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus admonishes us, “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). We must be true disciples of Jesus to enter by the narrow gate.

The Sheepfold The final image, that of a sheepfold, first sees the Lord as the good shepherd (John 10:1-18). We are His sheep who hear His voice.

Jesus protects and saves all the sheep, who were unable to save themselves.

The intimacy that Jesus speaks of His flock merits deep reflection. “I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (John 10:14-15).

Pause and take in: Jesus knows us the way that He perfectly knows, loves, and fully gives Himself to the Father. Incredible!

SEND US GOOD SHEPHERDS 9 Sheep Beware Why would Jesus talk about laying his life down if there was no predator? St. Peter teaches of our most dangerous enemy, the devil. “Be sober, be watchful.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Anyone who has made any effort in the spiritual life knows this to be true. The closer a soul gets to God, the more the devil shouts, tempts and distracts.

Why would Jesus speak of thieves and robbers if false prophets and leaders did not pose a constant threat to the Church? Jesus warned of false prophets (Matt 7:15, 24:11, 24:24), as well as St. Peter (2 Peter 2:1), St. John (1 John 4:1), and St. Paul–who cautioned nearly every community with which he corresponded. It was a problem then, and it continues to be a problem now. I can think of few issues more contentious in the Catholic Church today as to which bishops, cardinals, and priests are speaking the truth.

Everyone in the flock of the Lord has a narrow, difficult path to tread.

Only with divine assistance, our trust, and discernment can we sift through the competing voices.

Guiding Us to Christ Discipleship has always been challenging, and it certainly is today. Yet when the Church stays faithful to Christ, its source of life flows through the hard times as well as the good times. Be nourished by the Church, and let us be challenged to follow Our Lord closer each day.

10 EUCHARISTIC WAR

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

The War to Destroy the Eucharist Jerome German

Does the world need yet another article about wayward Catholic politicians and the Eucharistic scandal they and complicit bishops are providing? That depends.

Persistence is optional if salvation is optional. One does not stop banging the pan with a spoon while the bear is still in the kitchen.

We walk among saints and monsters. Such are the days with which we are blessed. It is the ultimate naïveté or denial to live in our era and to be oblivious of the fact that we are walking through a battlefield. Such oblivion pleases the powers of darkness a great deal. When the unarmed wander onto the battlefield, they need not be resisted; they will fall in due time.

On a battlefield, everything is a weapon: information, water, shelter, clothing, medicine, and last but certainly not least, food. Starving soldiers do not win wars. The supply line, or the lack thereof, will determine the outcome of a battle just as surely as the quality of the munitions or the training of the troops.

The Eucharist, when given to the dying, has been called by the Latin term viaticum, that is, food for the journey. In a sense, we are all dying from the moment of conception — on that journey to eternity we expend every breath in battle. To miss that fact is to miss life and to die without having lived — to perish for not having taken up life.

St. Padre Pio died the year I graduated from high school. His life was spent on the battlefield. Those who served him through his various illnesses tell us that he would say to them, “Bring me my weapon!” by which he meant his rosary, that ammunition belt of cartridges of love. In his zeal for the Eucharist, he declared: “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass.” He knew a thing or two about spiritual warfare. He knew that starving, poorly-trained spiritual soldiers do not win wars.

Have you any doubt that love can be a weapon? In a spiritual war, it is the only weapon. “Love your

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enemies; do good to those who persecute you,” Jesus instructed. God is love and love is power and might — the ultimate weapon. Some may intuit that truth and justice are weapons, but certainly not love. Their understanding is incomplete, for truth and justice are but salient attributes of love.

How then can one “weaponise the Eucharist”? How does one weaponise that which is, in spiritual warfare, already both the ultimate supply line and the ultimate munition — the truth that vanquishes?

By now you are thinking, and correctly so, that — concerning the hullabaloo about politicians and communion — what I am saying completely misses the mark; that, when speaking of their fear of weaponising the Eucharist, the bishops and pundits are referring specifically to the withholding of the Eucharist.

Ah. Yes. Of course. It is the withholding that is feared and derided — but certainly not for the lack of the viaticum withheld!

Those who receive unworthily do not even acknowledge the existence of the battlefield of life — the confrontation that permeates all of existence.

Viaticum is of no value for the pusillanimous struggle they are waging on the battlefield of vanity, a silly little socio-political game of prestige and saving face, the stuff of middle-school popularity contests. Theirs is the

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EUCHARISTIC WAR 11

immaturity that permeates our era.

By supporting them in their sad little diversion from reality, our bishops are preventing their charges from marching onto the battlefield of life and are galvanising their oblivion to the real battle. They thereby sacrifice these errant souls on the altar of their own petty clerical games of prestige and saving face.

Of course, none of us can judge the soul of any person, but that is not the point. We have a duty to warn others from evil. No one really expects that withholding Communion from them will work against them politically, and suggesting politics as a motive for the withholding is just a straw-man argument designed to paralyse the Church. If anything, withholding Communion from errant Catholics may enhance their socio-political standing among those who share their sociopathy.

But to treat their rejection of the precepts of the Faith as acceptable is to advance the evil they promote; those who promote this laxity are complicit in the evil thus promoted, and they are potentially complicit in the loss of the rejector’s soul and the souls of the scandalised. To commune with heresy for the sake of unity is to mock unity; it is to cast aside the “sign of contradiction”; that is, it is to cast aside the source of real unity: the very One received in that Communion.

So…what to do? What is unfolding before our eyes is nothing less than an all-out war on the Eucharist. The “source and summit of our faith”— the bazillion megaton love bomb — must be disarmed in order to defeat the Faith. No one is more certain of this than Satan. Christianity has no secret weapon because it has no secret anything. There is a deep need on the part of those complicit

in the massive atrocities of our age to find solace in a communion that is only a symbol: a shallow, shared affection; a brazen insignia of mutual back-scratching and goingsalong to get along; an emblem of solidarity in sin — the salvation of safety in numbers.

For them, real Communion must be annihilated. Actually believing that one is receiving the real Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the God-man, while in a deep state of moral compromise, is a terrifying proposition. Any exorcist worth his salt will attest to the terror that the presence of the Eucharist instils in demons. Satanists don’t go to churches of symbolic communions to steal bread to desecrate. One can only desecrate that which “hosts” something greater. Symbolic bread hosts nothing. Only real hosts will do.

It seems that some of our bishops may genuinely believe that a remedy for the spiritually defiant is the spiritual shock potential of receiving the Eucharist. But they grossly underestimate the human ability to deny reality. Demons, of course, are not in a position to deny

the reality of the Eucharist. God has allowed them the kindness that is Hell; allowed them to escape the torment of His love, the judgment of His mercy — that unrelenting forgiveness that tortures their pride.

But truth — the Eucharistic Christ, the Word made flesh, the witness to eternal love — they cannot escape; they can hide, but they cannot forget. It is truth that torments them.

Humans, on the other hand, are escape artists — spiritual Houdinis.

We build what demons cannot build: empires of distraction. It’s one of the dangerous niceties of temporal life not available in eternity.

Not only do we walk among saints and monsters, but we walk among more of each of them than at any time before. While the case is made every day for a world-view of fifty shades of grey, it daily becomes clearer to all but distraction’s zombies that our choices are increasingly black or white: monster or saint.

Jesus despises the middle ground — the centrists — the lukewarm; and He despises, more than anything, the vomitous kingdom of symbolic communion.

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No Man Can Serve Two Masters.

For Either He Will Hate The One, And Love The Other: Or He Will Sustain The One, And Despise The Other.

Matthew 6:24 John Lacken The above quotation from St Matthew’s Gospel, pertains to more than just money. In many situations throughout our lives, we are called to choose between God and other things or people that we may love.

A baptised Catholic relative decides to get married outside of the Church in a registry office. Family members must choose between God, who is master of the sacrament of matrimony, and between the secular State, which seeks to usurp God’s role in marriage and proclaim itself the master of marriage. For a Catholic to attend such a civil marriage ceremony is to deny God’s authority over marriage. A Catholic who attends such an event whilst proclaiming their loyalty to the Catholic Faith, is trying to serve two masters, and it cannot be done.

Similarly, the Catechism teaches us that there are three Sacraments of Christian initiation.

“The sacraments of Christian initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist - lay the foundations of every Christian life.

“The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life.

By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity.”(CCC 1212) The Catechism also teaches us that the sacrament of confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.

“Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the “sacraments of Christian initiation,” whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For “by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.”

(CCC 1285)

these bishops are denying grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the children who are due to receive these sacraments. They are keeping some of the “treasures of the divine life” from children and slowing down these children’s “advance toward the perfection of charity” by delaying and denying them these sacraments.

It is therefore very sad to see Catholic Bishops in Ireland postponing the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation for Catholic children, at the behest of the secular government. The Bishops cannot serve two masters and, in delaying and preventing children from coming to the fullness of Christian initiation through reception of the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation,

Once again, we can see the need to pray urgently for our Bishops that they will put the commands of God before the commands of men. So, let us pray an Ave for our bishops.

This is done in the name of health, but the data on Covid-19 clearly shows that children are not at any great risk from Covid-19 and if they were at risk, it would make it all the more urgent to complete their initiation into the Catholic Church.

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.

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IN THIS SIGN YOU WILL CONQUER 13

We must also commend Bishop Kevin Doran, of the Elphin Diocese, who recently responded to a comment by Minister Josepha Madigan by saying, with regard to the sacraments of baptism, first Holy Communion and Confrmation in the Elphin Diocese, - “...we will celebrate our Sacraments in our Churches and we will do it as safely and carefully as we celebrate our Sunday Masses.”

You Will Salute The Covid-19 Flag

Please God, Bishop Doran is waking up to the tyranny and persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland and that he will continue to resist and push back against corrupt government restrictions on religious practice and worship.

The bishops who have again postponed the sacraments in their dioceses, show a lack of awareness of the supernatural character of the Catholic Church. The Catechism teaches us, “The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments.” (CCC 1113), and yet our bishops are denying and restricting access to the very lifeblood of every Catholic.

“In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church.”

(CCC 1097) When the Irish bishops postpone sacraments or restrict access to the Sacraments they are denying faithful Catholics access to Jesus Christ Himself. They are blocking Catholics from the source of supernatural life.

In Knock, Ireland’s National Catholic Shrine, Catholics are being denied access to the 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

Sacrament of Confession if they do not wear a facemask because they are legally exempt from wearing one. The security staff in Knock, with the support of Archbishop Michael Neary, and the parish priest, Fr Richard Gibbons, are acting contrary, both to the law of the Catholic Church and to the laws of Ireland in blocking access to the sacrament of confession.

They are putting souls in danger and they are free to act with impunity in this matter because the only way to stop them from committing these abuses is to take them to the secular courts and no Catholic wants to do this. However, they will answer for their negligence before the Supreme Judge at their particular judgements.

Catholics must realise that there is a war going on for the souls of men. It is interesting to look at the lyrics of America’s National Anthem - ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. The song is all about a flag - the symbol of the American nation, and whether or not it continues to fly in the midst of a war.

Symbolism always has a place wherever there is war going on. The army seeks to place their flag on enemy territory to show that they have conquered that area or battle

ground. They may seek to get the enemy to wear a badge to show his submission and so that he can be easily identified. In today’s world, the covid-19 face masks represent a symbol of submission. They are like a flag of conquest of a population.

The gay pride flag is another flag of conquest to show that the enemies of the dangerous and false LGBT ideology have been conquered.

That is why the pride flags are flown on government buildings, on Catholic schools, in Catholic children’s hospitals, and outside of Catholic Churches. It is to show that the false LGBT ideology and its practitioners have conquered these places.

Recently a pride weekend was held in County Mayo and there was an event called, ‘The Big Gay Hike’, where LGBT supporters climbed St Patrick’s Holy Mountain bringing their gay pride flags with them. This was an attempt at conquest, to claim the mountain from the Catholic Church for the LGBT brigade.

In one of the local Mayo villages, a hotel, which is owned by a Catholic family, and where a prominent member of the family is on the local parish council, they flew the gay pride flags outside.

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I am told that in June, many shops in this village had small decorated altars and statues erected outside or in their windows to honour Jesus Christ in the Corpus Christi procession. Yet a month later, some of these same shops were displaying the flag of the enemies of Christ, the gay pride flag.

It is not a coincidence that the LGBT ideologists have corrupted and co-opted the symbol of God’s covenant with Noah, the rainbow.

They are using a very definite symbolism to show that they seek to conquer Catholicism and to subject it to their false, soul destroying, immoral lifestyles.

Sad to say, they have been very successful in their hostile take-over operations and many Catholics, of all ranks, have caved to the social pressure to salute the gay pride flag.

The ideology has also found its way into Catholic schools and the Irish National Teachers Organisation actively promotes the false and dangerous LGBT ideology to primary school children. As we have noted before, this is a form of child abuse and our bishops are not publicly opposing this corruption of the minds of children.

their own concepts and ideas around family types. It can be used to introduce the concept of families with two mums, two dads, single parent families and so on. It shows how families act in similar ways. *Also available: A Tale of Two Daddies” (source - https://www. into.ie/app/uploa ds/2019/10/ We-All-Belong-Picture-BooksResource.pdf)

In a section titled ‘LGBT Families - Junior and Senior Infants’ - they tell us why a teacher might like to use this book with the 4 - 6 year old children who are in Junior and Senior infants.

Any Catholic parent will immediately realise that the purpose of these lessons is not to, “allow children to develop their own understanding by asking questions and challenging their own concepts and ideas around family types”.

Rather, these lessons are designed to indoctrinate 4 - 6 year old children into acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle and this is child abuse, plain and simple. This child abuse is being promoted by the largest primary teachers union in Ireland with virtually no opposition from our Irish Catholic bishops.

“Why use this resource sheet and book?

As I pointed our in our July - August ‘Christ is King’ newsletter:

Using this book will stimulate discussion around different family types. It will allow children to develop their own understanding by asking questions and challenging

“Secular western governments, including Ireland’s, have a false understanding of human sexuality which directly contradicts Catholic teaching.

Therefore, conflict

For example, in a resource available on the INTO website called ‘We All Belong’, they recommend several LGBT themed books. One of these books is called ‘A Tale of Two Mammies’.

between the Catholic Church and the secular state is inevitable. It is imperative that our bishops not only fully engage in this conflict, but that they win this conflict over what is taught in Catholic schools because the future salvation of Catholic children is what is at stake.

Our Lord’s words about those who scandalise children will await those bishops who fail to protect children from the false and dangerous LGBT ideology” This is a war and our children are now the prizes to be won on the battlefield. Our enemies seek to destroy the innocence of our Catholic children and our Irish bishops are making no attempt to defend the city from this form of child abuse whose promoters are very well organised and have access to millions of euros in government and other funds.

Given that the National Centre for Curriculum Assessment, NCCA, is currently working behind the scenes and in league with many of the LGBT ideologists in order to produce a mandatory curriculum to force this corrupt ideology onto Irish Catholic school children, a group has come together to protest this abuse of children. They are calling themselves ‘Parent’s Rights Alliance’ and they seek to lobby

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against the NCCA’s approach to Relationships and Sexuality Education.

It is imperative for Catholic parents to protect their children from these abusers. As Father Seán Cunningham O.P. used to tell myself and my wife, the parent’s job is to place themselves between their child and any harm that threatens them and to protect their children with their lives if necessary. This is part of our job, which is to get ourselves and our children to Heaven.

The story is told of Saint Constantine’s vision whilst preparing for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Saint Constantine looked up at the sun and saw a cross of light above it with the words ‘in hoc signo vinces’ - in this sign you will conquer. The cross was emblazoned on the military standards used by his army and on the shields of his soldiers and they went on to win the war.

IN THIS SIGN YOU WILL CONQUER 15

We too will win the war for our children provided we march under the banner of the cross, boldly proclaiming the full teachings of the Catholic Church, especially with regard to marriage and family life, and provided we are prepared to fight valiantly and without ceasing to protect our children from this latest form of institutionalised child abuse that is engulfing our society.

We’ll convert your children, happens bit by bit, quietly and subtly. We’ll convert your children, reaching one and all. There’s really no escaping it. We’re coming for your children! We’re coming for your children! We’re coming for your children!”

We must also constantly bear in mind, that our real enemy is the devil and his minions, and we must earnestly seek and pray for the salvation of those who have become caught up in the false and dangerous LGBT ideology.

“Years ago, overbearing mothers, absent or abusive fathers, and paedophile priests snatched the joy these men were born to experience — the joy of God’s love for them.

All that’s left now is sullen, sodden, sick-making grotesque. Pity them.

Pray for them. And — whatever you do, please — keep your children away from them.”

That these people see children as targets was confirmed in a recent video made by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus who sang: “You think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked.

Just this once … you’re correct.

Milo Yiannopoulos commenting about these people said.

Catholic fathers must unite to form a Holy army of valiant Catholic warriors who are willing to stand up to protect women and children from this dangerous ideology.

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There’s a Place for Us Homosexuality in the Divine Plan of Redemption Jesus said to those who would stone her: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

John Cassidy - Bio Ex-homosexual and New Man John Cassidy has been serving the Catholic Church as a full-time Lay-Man since his conversion in 2014. John has founded the Association of Believing Catholics which is a lay initiative to promote and defend the fullness of Catholic truth.

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16 LITURGICAL STRENGTH

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

How The Liturgy Is Healing Medicine For Strident Times Msgr. Charles Pope One of the most concise and cogent descriptions of these often strident times came from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in 1986. It is contained in, of all places, his treatise on the theology of sacred music in a book called The Feast of Faith (Ignatius Press, 1986). His comments have been republished in a larger compendium of his works, Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2014, Vol 11).

It is hard to describe our times as anything but contentious. Loud, strident protests often predominate over reasoned discourse and thoughtful argumentation.

To be sure, every era has had, and has needed, protest and public opposition to injustice. There is a time and a place for loud protest and the use of memorable sound bites.

However, it is the predominance of loud protest and civil disobedience that stands out today. Sound bites, slogans, and simplistic “war cries” have to a large extent replaced thoughtful, reasoned discourse.

Volume, power, and visually flashy techniques are prized; they are being used more and more. Such approaches too frequently produce more heat than light.

Consider, then, this remarkable analysis by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, written back before the Internet and social media had turned up the volume even more.

Ratzinger paraphrased an insight of Gandhi’s, applied it to his analysis of our current times, and then proposed a healing remedy to restore balance: I would like to note a beautiful saying of Mahatma Gandhi …

Gandhi refers to the three habitats of the cosmos and how each of these provides its own mode of being. The fish live in the sea, and they are silent. The animals of the earth scream and shout; but the

birds, whose habitat is the heavens, sing. Silence is proper to the sea, shouting to the earth and singing to the heavens. Man has a share in all three of them. He carries the depths of the sea, the burden of the earth, and the heights of the heavens in himself. And for this reason, all three properties also belong to him: silence, shouting, and singing.

Today – I would like to add – we see only the shouting is left for the man without transcendence, since he only wants to be of the earth.…

The right liturgy, the liturgy of the Communion of the Saints, restores totality to man. It teaches him silence and singing again by opening him to the depths of the sea and teaching him to fly, the angels’ mode of being. It brings the song buried in him to sound once more by lifting up his heart. . . .

Right liturgy … liberates us from ordinary, everyday activity and returns to us once more the depths and the heights, silence and song … Right liturgy … sings with the angels … is silent with the expectant depths of the universe, and that is how it redeems the earth (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Collected Works, Vol 11, Theology

of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, p.

460).

This is a remarkable analysis and an insightful application of liturgy and cosmology to the issues and imbalances of our day! It is in the vein of “Save the liturgy, save the world.” For indeed, only in the worship of God do we find our true selves. Only in the liturgy is our true personality formed. The human person in his glory unites the material and spiritual orders. We are capable of pregnant, expectant silence; of the joyful shout of praise and the Gospel going forth; and of the song of Heaven.

As Ratzinger pointed out, though, we too often are preoccupied with and value only one aspect: the shouting of the earthbound creatures of this world. But the liturgy – good and proper liturgy – trains us in all three and accomplishes the balance that is so often lost today.

The liturgy is a training ground, not only for our heavenly destination, but also in what it means to be truly human.

Read and carefully consider Cardinal Ratzinger’s reflection. It will bless your soul; I know it has blessed mine.

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PETER & PAUL 17

We Desperately Need “Post-Conversion” Peter & Paul Prelates Today!

Fr Richard Heilman Why did Jesus choose Peter & Paul to “ignite” the first Church? Because He knew they’d be TOTALLY ALL IN!! Why? Because the “Power of Gratitude” can move mountains!

Prior to their conversion …

Peter had “distanced himself” from Jesus at the most critical time. The elitist bully/influencers of Jesus’ time were willing to go to any length to eradicate this Christian uprising.

Peter chose to remain silent and removed from this movement. Who knows? Maybe Peter was taking the long view, and felt this was not a hill to die on (I rolled my eyes as I wrote that last sentence).

Paul was, literally, killing Christians.

Paul was totally aligned with the elitist bully/influencers of his time.

Paul relished his membership in the “upper crust” of his day, and was willing to do their bidding to “kill off” this movement that threatened their agenda of the elitist bully/ influencers of his time.

What is this like? My thoughts go to the prelates of our time (Far too many, but not all).

There are the “Pre-Conversion Peter Prelates” of our time who “play the game” of “distancing” themselves from any Catholics (I’m thinking of the persecuted priests here, especially) who “actually” live and teach the challenging “pure form” of our Catholic faith. Instead, the “PreConversion Peter Prelates” (along with most of Catholic media) align themselves with the non-threatening, ambiguous and watered down Catholicism that remains silent on any “hot-button issues” that might threaten or enrage the elitist bully/ influencers of our time. These “PreConversion Peter Prelates” see “clear” teaching of our faith as divisive.

Why? Because the elitist bully/ influencers of our time will complain and even use violence against those who threaten their agenda, while those true to the faith will rarely, if ever use such measures. So, to “keep the peace,” the elitist bully/ influencers of our time are the first to be appeased and accommodated by the “Pre-Conversion Peter Prelates.”

Then there are the “Pre-Conversion Paul Prelates” of our time who will actually “kill off” any Catholic (especially priests) who angers the elitist bully/influencers of our time.

Of course, we are not talking about a “physical death” but, rather, a death to a person’s reputation, ministry, and/or ability to speak openly any longer. This is the 13th rule of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalise it, and polarise it.” This is what is referred to today as the “cancel culture.” Just as it was in Paul’s time, this “killing off” of “clear and present danger teachers” (danger to the elitist bully/influencers of our time) sends a powerful message (chilling effect) to anyone else who may “dare” to speak openly about what the Catholic Church “actually” teaches. Remain silent and/or ambiguous, or we are coming after you! A recent example is the way the American bishops just caved on one of the most important issues of our time: Communion for those in mortal sin, and how highprofile politicians are “normalising” this abomination unto the Lord in our Church.

One can only imagine the depth of Peter & Paul’s shame, once they “awakened” to just how dastardly were their deeds. This goes to my original line above that stated, “The ‘Power of Gratitude’ can move mountains!” Throughout my 33

years of priesthood, I never cease to be amazed by the uncommon and incredibly powerful ZEAL of those who, NOW, live their lives as a “forgiven sinner.” Through my experience, and even looking at the lives of the saints, it is clear that some of the greatest saints were, at one time, some of the greatest sinners.

Their immense gratitude for having been forgiven fuels a mighty Holy Spirit fire that never ceases to blaze!

THIS is why Jesus chose Peter & Paul. Jesus knew, after Peter directly denied Him and Paul was killing His followers, their gratitude, once forgiven, would ignite into the most enormous “contagious” Holy Spirit fire in all of salvation history. Jesus needed a fire THAT BIG to enable that fire to spread across the planet.

Wouldn’t it be AMAZING if we witnessed the same transformation of the far too many “Pre-Conversion Peter & Paul Prelates” of our time?!

Instead of shaming, blaming, silencing and punishing people and priests who speak openly and clearly about what the Church teaches, they would be TOTALLY ALL IN – with the JOY & THANKSGIVING of having been forgiven – in bringing the truths of our faith to ignite a fire in the Church and in the world!

Please offer a Hail Mary for this intention. Thank you!

18 CHURCH ATTACKS

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30th July 2021

The Burning Of The Churches Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

It was the Church that first spoke out against Hitler, in the courageous sermons of Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich and in the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, drafted for Pope Pius XI by his successor, Pope Pius XII, while the rest of the world was appeasing the dictator.

It was the Church, through the courage of countless priests and prelates, from Cardinal Mindszenty to Pope St. John Paul II, that implacably opposed Communism.

The burning to the ground of a dozen Catholic churches is Canada’s Kristallnacht. For now there is a new totalitarianism, which conflates the worst features of the ideological Marxism of the Chinese Communist Party with the economic Fascism of the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany.

This new totalitarianism calls itself wokery. It has deeply infected most Western countries. The “Democrats” in the United States, the Trudeau administration in Ottawa, the unelected Kommissars who rule the European tyrannyby-clerk through “Commission Regulations” that are in reality binding decrees – all of these and many more call themselves “woke”.

It is the Church, through her unwavering opposition to divorce, abortion, contraception, homosexuality and other assaults upon the natural Christian family that was once the glory of the West, that those who call themselves “woke” regard as their greatest and most effective opponent.

Like all totalitarians, the woke mob know that the ancient religion

one of whose precepts is that “The truth shall set you free” has always stood and will always stand in determined opposition to all forms of totalitarianism.

One of the fires started by the Communist rioters not only flattened a village church but destroyed the entire village, killing two people. But don’t ask for sympathy for the victims of the latest Communist violence from the Canadian government.

Mr Trudeau, the hard-Left Canadian prime minister, has been arresting pastors who wanted to keep services going during the pandemic, and has even had fences put around their churches.

Worse, he dithered for a week before saying anything and then, because the rioters were supporters of his, the most he could bring himself to say was, “That’s not the way to go.”

Gerry Butts, one of Trudeau’s advisers, was more explicit in

backing the rioters: “I understand the anger that’s out there.” In 2017, he had said, “Christians are the worst part of Canadian society.”

The head of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one Harsha Walia, tweeted, “Burn it all down.” Ten days after she said that, she has still not been fired from her job. Nor has she been prosecuted under Canada’s recently-tightened hate-speech laws. On the contrary: various board members have come out in her support.

For there is one law for the Communists and one law for the rest of us.

Ezra Levant, the splendid conservative commentator from the Rebel News independent TV station, is offering $10,000 for tips leading to the arrest of the church arsonists.

The pretext for the church-burning was the supposed discovery of thousands of “unknown graves” of

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indigenous Canadians near Catholic churches in western Canada. In fact – a fact that was carefully concealed from the Canadian people by the Marxstream media – the graves were not “unknown” but unmarked, as was the custom of the time. They were in recognised cemeteries.

Ms Heidi Matthews, of Harvard Law School (a nest of Communist vipers) described the arson as “a right of resistance to extreme and systemic injustice”.

The fact that, even in the past, the churches had not been burying people for anything other than the usual reason made no difference to Ms Matthews. In fact, several of the “unknown graves” were in cemeteries that are still in use.

The rioters also tore down statues of Queen Victoria and of the present Queen, neither of whom had any conceivable connection with the alleged (but actually fictitious) wrongdoing of the churches. That did not stop the rioters from uttering mindless chants of “No pride in genocide!”

Now, genocide is taking place today, right now, in Sinkiang Province, north-western China, and also in occupied Tibet, where the entire population has been enslaved and subjected to forced labour in the lithium mines that provide battery power for electric cars, as well as to forced interbreeding with the racialist Han Chinese, in an attempt to wipe out the Tibetan race.

Millions have been imprisoned, tortured and killed. However, as far as I can discover, there have been no far-Left demonstrations against genocide outside the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.

The indigenous Canadians in whose name the violence is nominally taking place (it is, of course, just like the Black Lives Matter violence, where any pretext will do) have

begged the Communists to desist.

For in Canada most of the churches are particularly welcoming to the aboriginal population, and are a major source of strength and support for them.

For this and many other reasons, the Communist rioters’ crimes could not possibly be more misconceived and less justifiable.

Yet a campaigner for homosexual “rights” wrote on Twitter: “It’s so beautiful to see people waking up and rising up all over the world.

The burning of churches in Canada to tearing down a Queen Elizabeth statue. Amazing things. This is the great awakening.”

Another Twitter user, this time from the United States, wrote (again on Twitter): “Can we also start burning down catholic churches here? I like this new trend Canada started.

CHURCH ATTACKS 19 It genuinely makes me happy to see Catholic churches burning in Canada – So proud of these first nations people taking down their power and tearing down symbols of so much disgusting oppression across history. Let ’em burn”” We must pray for all these hatefilled totalitarians, supporters of the Communist creed of universal hatred. We must pray for their victims, who have died in the flames of their hatre, and for the aboriginal congregations dispossessed of their churches by those who would exploit them.

It is by love that we shall defeat the haters. If the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church, the crazed arsonists of Western Canada and their pipsqueak prime minister certainly won’t.

“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 GOOD OUT OF EVIL

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

Positive Response To The Restrictions On Church Attendance Mary Kearns It seems like a contradiction to say some positive effects arose from the various restrictions we endured while helping to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Those faithful people who did their best as far as possible, to attend Mass, were overjoyed when eventually they were permitted to be present actually and not virtually, for the Sunday celebration in their own parish.

One priest reported that the congregation spontaneously joined together in singing “Queen of the May” at the end of the first Mass they had attended after months of standing outside and listening in the car-park. Other places witnessed a genuine happiness pervading the church building. As the parish priest said when he welcomed his parishioners back “I can’t see your smiles because of the masks, but I can see your eyes smiling.”

The value of the Mass is beyond price and while we know this, in the past perhaps we did not think seriously enough about it. We could go to Mass on Sunday in any church we liked, while now in most places throughout Ireland, we are obliged to attend liturgical celebrations in our own parish. This makes us realise that Mass is the same everywhere in the Catholic world.

Many disagree however and claim that a bewildering variety exists from church to church.

A lady staying in a New York hotel some years ago told that when she enquired about Mass at Reception, she was given a leaflet with information on “Catholic orthodox, Catholic liberal, Catholic charismatic, Catholic gospel, Catholic folk, Catholic Latin, etc.

AY ERE TOD H S S A NO M DAY HERE TO

etc.” This is not too far from what we now experience in our own country. Nonetheless it is important to remember that even if serious liturgical malpractice abounds, the three conditions for a valid Mass remain, namely the intention of the priest and the bread and wine.

This does not mean of course, that liberties may be taken with the liturgy in normal circumstances.

his years of solitary confinement.

Our circumstances of course are not so extreme and it is often not only a challenge but a penance when we are obliged to be present at Mass when things are not to our taste. This is true especially when the liturgy does not respect all the rubrics and in several instances does not accord with the norms the Church has laid down.

In “Five Loaves and Two Fishes” Archbishop (later Cardinal) Thuan of Vietnam recounts how he was arrested when Communist forces invaded Saigon in the 1970s.

Although deprived of everything he owned, he was permitted to write to friends for necessities such as soap, toothpaste etc. and so he asked for “some medicine for my stomach.”

We are dismayed and annoyed when the celebrant fails to adhere to the prescribed prayers and what passes for music is some dreadful and inappropriate recording. In addition, the extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion often extend their duties way beyond what is required.

Sometimes it is hard to pray and we leave the church afterwards in a mood less edified than when we entered. We would much prefer to have gone somewhere else.

His friends of course realised what he meant and sent to the prison, a small bottle of wine labelled “stomach medicine” and also some hosts hidden inside a flashlight.

The Archbishop was therefore able thanks to his friends outside, to celebrate Mass many times during

At the same time we should not neglect to recognise one positive effect of the restrictions on Church attendance, namely that we are forced to appreciate more sincerely

30th July 2021

Catholic Voice

than before, being able to go to Mass at all. During lock-down, it was possible to turn a blind eye to some dubious practices in the liturgy when it meant that a certain priest was willing to celebrate daily Mass, despite the restrictions on people being present.

Some priests simply left the church door open or came out to those gathered outside to administer Holy Communion. We were grateful for the opportunity and reminded ourselves of the severe difficulties experienced by our ancestors during penal days.

As we do our best to practice our Faith in less than normal circumstances, the most important matter is to value the reality of the Holy Sacrifice above all else, including health issues.

As we know, each time we attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our soul benefits from the grace it receives as it does with all the sacraments.

Something more is happening at Mass than even the sacraments.

The priest, acting in the person of Christ receives the special benefits of ministry and those people in attendance offer themselves to the Father with Jesus, the holy and spotless victim. In addition to this, there is a special intention “for whom the Mass is offered.” This brings us to the issue of having an individual Mass offered.

It is a laudable practice to offer Mass for a special intention. However this is of small value compared to the inestimable value of the priest offering the Mass for this intention, because in that case, it is Christ himself who is offering the sacrifice in the person of the priest.

When we decide to get a Mass said for someone it is usually because

of some special reason. Perhaps a person has died and we want to have Mass offered to entreat God’s mercy on his soul. At other times a priest may be asked to offer Mass for the sick or the dying, to obtain employment or some other favour.

Sadly the practice of individual Mass being offered seems to be on the decline.

In the past all those who attended a funeral had a Mass card in their hand. It is now however quite common that the name of the deceased or anyone for whom Mass is intended, is included in the Masses and prayers said by a religious community. This is not the same as having an individual Mass offered for a particular person.

In The Incredible Catholic Mass, Fr. Martin von Cochem OSF describes how the Holy Sacrifice is the antidote to all evil. Mass is the direct line to the heart of God. This book written in the eighteenth century and recently re-published, gives a timeless insight into the unique value of having Mass offered for an individual. No gift is as valuable as the gift of having a special Mass offered.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL 21 “All the Masses which you hear, or are said for you, will await you at your death: they will go to the judgement seat; they will plead for mercy for you” The custom of having a Mass said for the deceased goes back to the early Church. Inscriptions found on the catacombs in Rome date from the second century. Saint Augustine who died in 430, recorded in his Confessions the wish of his dying mother, Monica who asked that wherever he would find himself that he would remember to pray for her at Mass. Another example comes from Pope Saint Gregory (d.604) who exhorted the faithful never to hesitate to offer prayers for the dead.

“One Mass said in your lifetime will do more to free the soul from the punishment of sin than many Masses after death. For our sojourn in this world is a time of grace, afterwards comes the time of just retribution; now it will be far easier to make our peace with our Judge than it will be hereafter.”

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@gmail.com 087 77 94687

22 LITURGICAL EXCELLENCE

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

Three Steps for a Perfect Liturgy Christopher Carstens Professional liturgists are often rightly accused of overemphasising ritual details: the number of swings of a thurible, the precise placement of candles on the altar, or the manner of tying a cincture. While exactitude in such matters is not itself a fault (says this “professional liturgist”), losing the bigger liturgical picture is. Ritual and rubrical precision are not ends in themselves: rather, they serve a greater reality.

So, lest one get lost in the liturgical weeds, it is helpful from time to time to take a step back and look with fresh eyes at what happens in the liturgy; what are its most basic structures; what, in fact, is the liturgy.

The essence of the liturgy can be a slippery thing. In fact, and by way of illustration, explain to your spouse, friend, or coworker—or even yourself—in 50 words or less, what the liturgy is.

How did you do?

The Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium offers a concise definition early on in the document, one that we can examine with much benefit now. “The liturgy,” it says, “is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members” (7, citing Mediator Dei (Pope Pius XII), 22, 171, 20 and (less directly) Divini Cultus (Pius XI).

Within this definition or description, we see three persons, or group of

persons, involved in the liturgy, whose work in its celebration can clarify our big-picture look at the liturgical landscape.

First, the liturgy is an “exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ.”

Here is the essence of the liturgy— the work of Christ the High Priest.

Jesus, in cooperation with Father and Spirit, is the Prime Minister of the liturgy, its principal actor. His “priestly office” or work is nothing other than his Paschal Mystery— his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension—by which he passed from the fallen world of sin to the glorious heaven of the Father. His passage, in fact, has bridged earth to heaven, so that now we too can cross over with him. The Trinitarian bridge-building project stands beneath (is the sub-stance) of every

liturgy: the Mass, sacraments, sacramentals, Liturgy of the Hours, funerals. What’s more, it is done perfectly every time: whereas you or I may have a bad day on the job, Jesus always works perfectly.

Hence, from this angle, every liturgy is absolutely perfect.

Second, this “priestly office of Jesus Christ” is made present to us “by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs.” That is, Jesus’ priestly work of reconciliation carried out in the flesh some 2000 years ago has been turned into—clothed, as it were— rites and sacraments. St. Leo the Great famously put it this way: “What was visible in our Saviour has passed into his sacraments.” But it is not simply the seven sacraments that make Jesus and his work present

30th July 2021 Catholic Voice to us today, even though these are the most privileged channels.

Every liturgical element—such as swinging thuribles, properly placed candles, and tied cinctures—reveal, even if in a smaller way, Christ.

This liturgical and sacramental manifestation of Christ is principally the work of the priestcelebrant and the ministers who assist him and the assembly. The Church likens this task to a work of art—an ars celebrandi, or “art of celebrating”—where the Father’s true masterpiece, Jesus, is displayed before the praying Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

A perfect liturgy (perhaps “less imperfect” is the better way to say it) thus finds priest and ministers celebrating with humility, devotion, and obedience to the Church’s ritual books.

celebrated “by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members.” As we saw above, the priest-celebrant occupies a privileged place among the praying Church, standing in the person of Christ the head (in personal Christi capitis). But a head without a body is as lifeless as a body without at head: the members of Christ’s body, each of the baptised, joins with the head in actively participating in the “priestly exercise of Jesus Christ.”

And while the priest captains the liturgical celebration with mind and heart, the faithful—each according to his or her ability, be it the eightday old newly baptised infant or the octogenarian grandmother— engage fully, consciously, and actively in the liturgical rite, and not, as Pius said, like “like dumb and idle spectators” (1955 Encyclical Musicae Sacrae, 64).

Third, Sacrosanctum Concilium’s definition tells us that the liturgy is

In short, there are three bodies of liturgical actors who reveal—

LITURGICAL EXCELLENCE 23 or, unfortunately, conceal—the essence of the liturgy: 1) the Trinity, 2) the priest and his ministers, and 3) the faithful. The Trinity always works perfectly; the priest’s ars celebrandi shines when following the Church, but is lacklustre when it follows his personal inclinations; the faithful’s sanctity and worship excels when actively participating with intelligence, but falls flat when becoming too passive.

This liturgical look at the big picture is always helpful, even necessary, to bear in mind, but especially so as we free ourselves from the many COVID-inspired restrictions that wormed their way into so many aspects of the liturgical rite.

Ceremonial details are important— God is in the details—but so too is keeping our eyes fixed on the larger truth of the matter: that the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ is substantially present to the praying Church in 2021. How perfect!

24 SURVIVING DARK TIMES

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

100 Years Ago G.K. Chesterton Predicted Our Dark Times Anna Kalinowski Over one century ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote a masterpiece poem titled ‘The Ballad of the White Horse’. Today, more than ever, it strikes chords in the hearts of all who love the Catholic Church and her traditions.

In soul-stirring rhymes, Chesterton tells the story of ragged King Alfred, who mournfully wanders through his once Catholic kingdom, now overrun with pagan Danes. The ballad weaves a tapestry of medieval legends, but its essence rings as true as historical fact. It is the story of the fight for truth, goodness, and beauty in a fallen world. The profound sorrow experienced by Alfred at the sight of his afflicted kingdom bears a striking resemblance to the sorrow of Catholics today who, realising what the Church has lost, yearn for the restoration of beauty, tradition, and true Catholic culture.

In the first book of the ballad, Alfred begs Our Lady to tell him if he will ever succeed in driving the Danes from his land. She gives a cryptic reply that includes two of the ballad’s most resounding stanzas:

I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.

Night shall be thrice night over you, And heaven an iron cope.

Do you have joy without a cause, Yea, faith without a hope?

These ominous words resonate much with us in our own dark days, awash with the waves of scandal, apostasy, and unprecedented internal attacks. The Mother of God does not minimise the Cross.

She who speaks of darkness to Alfred speaks as one who watched God die on a cross when darkness came over the whole land (Matthew 27:45).

When we acknowledge the dark state of things and open our eyes to the black reality of evil, we find something deeper and more resilient than consolation — it is a sort of naked hope like that of the martyrs, who, though they could see, hear, and feel nothing but atrocities in their final moments, nevertheless rejoiced in the infinite goodness of God.

Some Catholics today hide their eyes from the Church’s affliction like frightened children at the sight of a wound. They cannot bear to look at reality because the magnitude of its evil swallows their shrunken idea of God and the Church His bride. In a pharisaical attempt to save the nation (John 11:50–51), they haggle and make compromises with secularists as if the Church were an earthly kingdom that must bow to the powers of the world in order to survive. This denial of reality closes them off from the mysterious and liberating naked hope that dawns only when one fully embraces reality, which is the Cross itself. The Mother of God beheld the horror of the Cross far more clearly and painfully than any other disciple, but such was her faith in God, that the enormity of the evil only deepened her adoration. For those who embrace the Cross, great evil will always point to an infinitely greater God. The fight for the Church, tradition, and culture continues under desperate conditions. Unchecked moral relativism in secular education systems and abysmal catechesis

30th July 2021 Catholic Voice within the Church combine to produce individuals who seem to lack the ability to ask even the most basic philosophical questions.

A vast part of the population even within the Church does not think to ask, “Where did I come from?” and “Where am I going?” Amazingly, in the midst of this stupor, a few sparks of sanity have ignited the traditional movement.

Very few Catholics who love tradition are unharmed by the disastrous catechetical neglect of the last several decades. Nor do they easily elude the toxic fumes of relativism that permeate the very walls of the Church. But despite these misfortunes of the past and dangers of the present, they struggle on. They know beyond doubt that their Church is not a bureaucracy, but a bride, and that a bride is worth fighting for.

Chesterton captures the spirit of these people, the “kind of Christ,” in another portion of Our Lady’s message to Alfred:

But you and all the kind of Christ Are ignorant and brave, And you have wars you hardly win And souls you hardly save.

This stanza is an apt description of the distressed faithful in the Church today. Even those of us who claim to know something of the Faith cannot really understand God’s reasons for the Church’s present suffering.

We can only fight on in ignorance, striving to save our own souls and the souls of others as best we can. But Chesterton, never one for pessimism, deftly draws each of his lines up from man’s weakness to poetic summits that illuminate the victorious power of God: Christ, brave, win, save.

All dissonance resolves in these resounding tonic chords, and we find ourselves spurred on once again by the mysterious naked hope.

Our Lady touches again on the inevitable ignorance of Christians in the face of their sufferings when she says to Alfred:

SURVIVING DARK TIMES 25

The men of the East may spell the stars, And times and triumphs mark, But the men signed of the cross of Christ Go gaily in the dark.

This reference to ignorance, the Cross, and darkness bears with it a new development: gaiety. This is gaiety in the old and true sense, that word that so richly describes a joyful and brilliant mirth. Alfred experiences this mirth when a servant woman strikes him across the face because she believes he is a beggar rather than the king. So, too, we can experience it only when we cease to regard ourselves as powerful people and see only our total dependence on God. After hearing Our Lady’s beautiful exhortation, Alfred finds himself full of courage. He enters the Danes’ camp and sings a song that masterfully captures the splendour of the persecuted Christian spirit. I quote two stanzas here: That though you hunt the Christian man Like a hare on the hill-side, The hare has still more heart to run Than you have heart to ride.

That though all lances split on you, All swords be heaved in vain, We have more lust again to lose Than you to win again.

Indeed, in the battle for souls and the Church we love, we are often “hares on a hillside” with little success, much humiliation, and much loss.

Our lances split on the vast barricades of modernism found everywhere in the Church, but like Alfred, we never lose the heart to run. We lust for loss because loss in the fight for the Catholic Church, in all her traditional splendour, still far exceeds the tainted rewards of compromise.

Our enemies both within the Church and without ridicule us, and we are no more than ragged beggars before them. They gleefully arm themselves with reports of scandals, changing doctrine (as if that were possible), and all manner of groundless accusations to convince us and the rest of the world how foolish we are. In answer

to their jeers, we must simply say with Alfred, But though I lie on the floor of the world, With the seven sins for rods, I would rather fall with Adam Than rise with all your gods.

We aren’t experts, we aren’t elite, and we have many sins. We stand with darkness bearing down upon us like an iron cope, but we hold fast to the One of whom the psalmist says, “Sicut tenebrae eius, ita et lumen eius. — Darkness is as light to You” (Psalm 138) [2]. Perhaps many hopes and happy dreams of our own have died painful deaths, and perhaps in our lives on this Earth, we will never see an end of the shocking internal discord suffered by Holy Mother Church.

Nevertheless, our faith is not without a hope. The naked hope is hopeless only insofar as it does not rely on worldly victories to keep its flame alive. Indeed, the naked hope flares up in reckless grandeur when all view of success is completely obscured and the only thing left is the Cross itself. Let us stand with the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross in the midst of the present darkness and recall with joy that, by the strange and beautiful providence of God, the dawn of the Resurrection will surely follow the night of the Cross.

26 A ROCK OR A HARD PLACE

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

Saudia Arabia Or Australia?

Peter Kwasniewski A Catholic in Saudi Arabia has good reason to prefer living there over his native Australia In the Moslem country, faith is assumed; in a modern Western country, faithlessness is assumed.

A reader who came across my article “Between Christ the King and ‘We Have No King But Caesar,’” in which I defend the superiority of Catholic Monarchy over other forms of government, wrote to me with a question.

I was wondering, given the absence of true Catholic Monarchy today, our duty to submit to legitimate authorities, and “a world crashing around us into unimaginable deviancy,” what you thought our best options were. My feeling is that any form of theistic integralism — Calvinist, Lutheran, Mohammedan, or Jewish — would be preferable to the twin visions of Hell shown us by the Renegade Mainland Provinces and the Rebel North American Colonies. What do you think?

I replied that one might be torn on the question of whether a nonCatholic but religious regime is better than a secular one. It was surely not good for English and Irish Catholics when they suffered under Queen Elizabeth I, and it’s not good for today’s Catholics to be in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. On the other hand, there’s the saying about how the lukewarm will be vomited forth.

People go more easily from false zeal to true zeal than they do from 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.

total indifference to religious faith.

In that sense, a religious society is better off than an irreligious or non-religious society, and the same would seem to be true of governments.

When I wrote this, I had no idea that my interlocutor actually lived in Saudi Arabia! In response, he told me what it has been like for him to live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the past two years. He admitted that he’s in a privileged position as a white-collar worker in a part of the country where crossing the causeway to Bahrain to attend Mass is possible, but he feels less under siege as a Catholic in Saudi Arabia than he did in a quiet university town in Australia, for the following reasons.

The rules in Saudi Arabia are settled and stable, and being based on an authority that is seen as Divine, bind the King as much as the least of his subjects. While the details may change over time, the extent of possible change has been pretty well-established by historical experiment, so the map of possible permutations is not hard to predict.

It is not like the West today, where they are making rules up as they go along, and where each year brings fresh hell for Christians and conservatives.

The things he’s not allowed to say are relatively few, and are not things he feels tempted to say anyway. Practically every day at his Australian university, on the other hand, he had to choke back something he wanted desperately to say that he knew would get him in trouble.

Moreover, “locals think better of the Christians than we deserve, and assume all Westerners are Christians.” Even Saudi co-workers who earned graduate degrees in Chicago or Manchester cannot really process that atheists exist in the world. So one would have to go out of one’s way to deny Christ in Saudi Arabia. In Australia, on the other hand, the default assumption of most people he met socially was that he would surely be a progressive atheist (since that’s seen as the only intelligent view), and he was often faced with the temptation to keep quiet to avoid an uncomfortable argument. In other words, in the

30th July 2021 Catholic Voice Moslem country, faith is assumed; in a modern Western country, faithlessness is assumed.

Most movingly, he wrote, “It is a tremendous joy for me to wake up every morning in a place where the unborn are not being legally slaughtered. It is a lesser joy, but still a great one, to wake up every morning and know that the public square will not be pushing perversion at me all day long, in whatever ‘woke’ form it happens to take in the current calendar year.”

He said he appreciated the fact that there are things the State forbids him to do for the good of his soul — limits on his liberty that are less onerous than the ones Westerners put up with all over the world solely for the good of their bodies. Even if many of the Saudi restrictions may not actually be good for one’s soul, there is at least an acknowledgement that the soul

A ROCK OR A HARD PLACE 27

is real and primary. In other parts of the so-called “free world,” the government is either studiously indifferent to the eternal welfare of its citizens or actively (though, one would hope, unwittingly) working to ensure their damnation.

His concluding thought was powerful: “So, although I considered myself fairly integralist before moving to Saudi Arabia, I am now much more integralist, having seen the ‘form’ of integralism in action, without its true ‘matter.’ In short: I would love to live in a Catholic version of this country, for that would unite the correct formality of government with the content of the truth.”

The perhaps surprising reflections of this Australian Catholic now residing in Saudi Arabia help us to step outside the bubble of our comfortable liberalism. The lack of secularism and the insistence that there is a divine order and that

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

the political order must correspond to it makes an environment more true to reality and more human, even when religious error predominates.

It shows the naturalness and rightness of integralism as a logical, coherent, and supportive mode of living. Liberalism is the illusion that it is possible to separate politics from its divine origin and finality and to understand citizenship in abstraction from the personal religious commitment of citizens.

Liberalism seduces us into creating what we think is a neutral “Godfree” space, which turns out to be a shrine in which the ego is erected as an idol. Where God is dethroned, the world, the flesh, and the devil rush in to fill the void.

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.

CATECHISM ON MODERNISM

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.

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

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.

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28 WAKE UP!

Catholic Voice

30th July 2021

Awaken From Your Slumber Fr. Kyle Walterscheid

A Nation Cannot Survive Without God

In the year 600 B.C. Ezekiel was a priest of the temple in Jerusalem. (From Ezekiel 1-2)

We see the reason Jesus could not do the mighty miracles he performed elsewhere. His own people of Nazareth lacked faith, because they did not live fervently for God as did Ezekiel, as did the Lord Jesus Himself.

However, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon exiled the leaders of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.

So let’s take a second look at Ezekiel for a moment.

Four years later in 593 B.C., God called Ezekiel forward to be a prophet to Israel as they suffered the humiliation of being expelled from their own country.

For the next 5 years, Ezekiel predicted the unthinkable: the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple in Jerusalem, the holy of all holies.

Ezekiel foretold these events because the people, among many other abominations, did not seek the Lord. They instead turned their backs (literally) to the Temple and worshiped the Sun of daylight.

We see a stark contrast when comparing Ezekiel’s fidelity to God to that of the people of Nazareth who had little faith in Jesus. (Mark 6:1-6).

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

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This line is truly striking: God says to Ezekiel, “Whether they heed you or resist you, they shall know that a prophet has been among them.”

This line tells us with certainty that to be a prophet, having a heart for God alone (that is, an undivided heart) is a qualifying element. True prophets are consumed in serving the Lord alone and no other gods or interests in the world.

Secondly, God calls all prophets to proclaim the truth no matter the consequences – right in the face of the people who turn their backs, not their faces to God. As a Christian, I find the Old Testament prophets to be amazing and incredibly courageous people.

They stood in front of people day in and day out and proclaimed the truth without wavering–having no armour, no way of protecting themselves against the mob. They fully trusted in God alone as their guide and shield.

When we look at Christianity, we see lots of weak leaders; not so many great kings, prophets, and priests. I am not saying we have not had great saints and martyrs of the faith, we have, but most Christian leaders fall woefully short of their call to stand up against tyrants and against the sins of their own time.

In short, we have not seen many Christian leaders live fully for the Lord Jesus without wavering, and who hold their ground in truth no matter the consequences.

In America we have just celebrated the Fourth of July, where we DO see a tremendous amount of bravery.

Men and women who sought the Lord, who saw the many errors of the past within Christianity and were determined to find common ground to forge a nation unlike anything seen before.

They fought for independence, creating a country with limited government power, real checks and balances within three branches of government, and established a Bill of Rights and the ability for amendments to further provide for equality among all peoples throughout the ages.

As John Adams, a signer of the US Constitution said, “I always consider the settlement of America

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Catholic Voice

with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

In other words, Adams saw in conception of the U.S. a nation to be a light to the world, bringing freedom for all people, and a place that all nations would stream too, or want to replicate.

I certainly honour the great hunger and desire of these Founding Fathers who, though they knew their differences of opinion were grave in many areas, fought to obtain independence while at the same time laboured to develop a government that would serve all people.

But the U.S. Constitution, with the flexibility to further equality greater than any other nation, has a few limits to it: John Adams also said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Other signers of the U.S. Constitution also noted its limits: Thomas Jefferson said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

James Madison said, “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical (impossible) idea.”

With all of this said, God is calling us to awaken from our slumber.

We have taken our lives, our freedoms, and our faith way too much for granted. We do not need to be the priest, the prophet, or the king to do our part. Jesus Christ already fulfils those roles, and he does so perfectly, and of his Kingdom, there shall be no end.

But God calls us to awaken from our slumber and realise our country and the whole world is not too different from the time when Ezekiel prophetically called out to his people the coming doom if they did not change their ways.

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They refused to change their ways and their country was utterly destroyed.

Let us carry the Cross destined for each of us, but let us carry them together, knowing that the cross of Christ will always bring us freedom and salvation.

May we continue to deepen our faith, knowing the Word of God and knowing the truth by reading Sacred Scripture daily (a chapter a day keeps the devil away).

Let us know our faith by learning the depth of our Catholic teaching, which brings true equality and makes us the Body of Christ, constantly looking after the greater good of one another.

Let us let us live joyfully as the body of Christ, willing to suffer torments rather than separate ourselves from Christ or from one another. In this way we can be (and are called to be) faithful prophets to the Lord in our own time.

God bless those committed to remaining faithful to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

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.

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

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

(Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

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30th July 2021

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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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Reflections on the Abortion Issue in Ireland.

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(LISTED BY DIOCESE) DAILY & WEEKLY Meath: Silverstream Priory (Benedictine monks) Armagh: New Mellifont Abbey, Collon, Co. Louth Stamullen: Sunday 10.00 preceded by Terce, other days 11.00.

Every Sunday 3pm.

Meath: Church of the Nativity, Johnstown, Navan, Co. Meath Cork & Ross: Ss Peter’s & Paul’s, Cork: Sundays 12.00 noon, Sundays 1pm; First Fridays 11am; Holydays as announced.

Mon - Sat 10.00.

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

Cork & Ross: St Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork. Sundays 8:00am Raphoe: St. Patrick’s, Drumkeen, Donegal Sun 11.00. in the Dominican Rite; Down & Connor: Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Waterford: (FSSP) St. John’s Church, Parnell Street, Waterford Sunday: 8 and 11am, Mon-Fri (ex Thurs), 19:00. Thurs: 8am, City – Every Sunday 1:30pm, Mon 1:00pm, Tues – Friday Sat: 8am, 11am.

Dromore: St.Mary’s, Newry: Sundays and Holydays 9.00am.

Dublin: St. Kevin’s, Harrington Street: Sundays & non working Holy Days: 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00; (Vespers Sun 3:30pm.) Mon - Fri 08.00; Sat 09.00.

Working Holidays & 1st Fridays; 08.00 and 19.00.

Dublin: St. Joseph’s, Newtownmountkennedy Co Wicklow Sat 11:00 Elphin: Church of the Sacred Heart and St Barry, Whitehall, Tarmonbarry, Co Roscommon. Every Sunday 5pm Ferns: (FSSP) St. Alphonsus, Barntown, Co Wexford: Every Sunday 17.00 (Sung Mass 1st and 3rd Sundays), Holy days as announced.

Galway: Chapel of St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s Road (ICKSP) Sun 15:00 Limerick: Sacred Heart, The Crescent (ICKSP) Sun 8am, 10.30am, 6pm; Mon-Weds 08.00 and 18.00; Thurs 8:00, Friday 18.00; Saturday 08.00 & 10:30 (followed by 1st Saturday devotions)

19:30 (19:00 1st Fridays) Sat 11:00am, Holydays as announced.

TWICE MONTHLY Derry: St. Columba’s , Longtower: First and Third Sunday 14:00 MONTHLY Armagh: St. Patrick’s, Dungannon, Co Tyrone: First Saturday 14.00.

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

Derry: St. Marys, Aughabrack, Co Tyrone: Fourth Sunday 12.45 Elphin: St. John’s, Carraoe, Co Sligo ; Last Sunday Killaloe: St. Joseph ‘s, Ennis, Co Clare: First Sunday 17:30 Tuam: St. John the Baptist, (Old Parish 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 in the event of any changes or errors.

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

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