Catholic Voice 10th September 2021 Issue 325

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Issue 325

The Calling of St Matthew - Caravaggio (1571 - 1610)

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2 CARDINAL BURKE

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Cardinal Burke’s Letter Of Gratitude and prayers, lighted candles, and requested the offering of the Holy Mass, I extend my sincere gratitude, and I ask the Lord and His Mother to bless you all. I also thank my brother bishops and priests who have offered Mass for me or prayed for me at the altar.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke Praised be Jesus Christ!

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I express deep gratitude to God, who has brought me to this point of healing and recovery. As previously communicated by the leadership and staff of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, for whom I also express my profound appreciation, I am no longer intubated with a medical ventilator.

I have been transferred out of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and settled in a hospital room where the doctors, nurses, and numerous hospital staff have provided vigilant, superb, and steadfast medical care.

For these dedicated professionals, too, I offer heartfelt thanks, as well as to the priests who have ministered to me sacramentally. To those who have offered innumerable Rosaries

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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

This generous outpouring of grace unites me to you in a special way, as I am also particularly united to all victims suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 virus. With all my heart, I express to you my wish that I could respond to every phone call, text message, and email.

However, due to the intensive rehabilitation that I will soon begin, providing a response beyond these universal letters will not be possible. In your charity, I know you will understand this circumstance and accept that I must preserve my energy so that I can recover my health and strength.

Hospital regulations limit visitors to immediate family members.

During the forthcoming extended period of convalescence, it is my intention to provide only occasional updates when there is something significant to share with you.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe has accepted the necessary and crucial role of direct communication, on my behalf. Again, in your kindness, may I ask that you direct all of your communication to me through the Shrine’s website, at GuadalupeShrine.org/ MessageCardinalBurke.

Of late, I have been reminded of the motto that I took when I was selected for the episcopacy: “Secundum Cor Tuum” (“According to Your Heart”). All things ordered in and

through the Divine Will have as their origin the Sacred Heart of Our Saviour, whose fundamental motivation is His Eternal Love for His Father and for His children.

Since Divine Providence has governed that I remain hospitalised for the present, I now reaffirm that same episcopal conviction: suffering, united with the suffering of Jesus Christ, is truly efficacious in His Divine Plan for our salvation when accepted willingly and wholeheartedly. Saint Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, teaches us the meaning of our suffering: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Colossians 1:24).

United with Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim, I offer all that I suffer for the Church and for the world.

Asking God’s blessing upon you and your family, and confiding your intentions to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and your holy patron saints, I remain Yours in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke 28 August 2021 Feast of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

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10th September 2021 Catholic Voice

DISASTROUS TIMES 3

“Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: “There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.”

- Pope Saint Pius X 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 EUCHARISTIC AMAZEMENT

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement: Three Mystical Experiences Of A Priest Peter Kwasniewski

The rubrics of the traditional liturgy are all deliberate and with a purpose; those pertaining to the Holy Eucharist remind the priest he is handling the sacred mysteries, which are a heavenly food unlike any other.

A priest friend with whom I have exchanged correspondence for years and who has often said Masses for my family’s intentions, wrote to me recently to share three mystical experiences he has received in connection with reverence to be given to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

He tells me that he recalled when he was a high school senior seminarian in 1977 and was shown how to receive Holy Communion in the hand by a teacher who cited St. Cyril of Alexandria as evidence that “this is how it was done in the early Church.” Nevertheless, the seminarian chose to continue receiving in the mouth and did so until he went to the Josephinum, where all students were forced to receive in the hand—a practice he always detested.

Now I shift to his own words: When I was newly ordained 32 years ago, I was aware that priests traditionally closed the canonical fingers after the Consecration, but I had no desire to follow that rubric as virtually no priest I knew was still doing that and I did not think it was necessary. However, I found that I had a strong impulse to close these fingers after the Consecration. I ignored it for a while, but the impulse became so strong that it seemed my canonical fingers were closing against my will. It seemed to me this must be a grace from the Holy Spirit so I simply began to follow that old rubric and have continued ever since, even though it got me labeled as a strange “Trad.”

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Here, Father is referring to the old rubric, which dates back to the Middle Ages and is found codified in the 1570 Missale Romanum of St. Pius V, that bids the priest hold together his thumb and forefinger from the moment of Consecration all through Communion until the ablutions (the cleansing of the fingers and vessels).

The rationale was to minimise the possibility of losing particles from the hosts that the priest has handled, and to remind him that he is indeed handling the sacred mysteries, which are a heavenly food unlike any other.

Younger clergy today have rediscovered this custom and reintroduced it even in the context of the Novus Ordo.

The priest continues: I felt a strong desire to offer reparation for priests who are too casual in their regard for the Sacred Species, so I told the good Lord I would be willing to offer such reparation in any way I could. This resulted in another very specific impulse. I had always been very careful to purify my paten before I left to distribute Holy Communion, and the impulse was that I should ask the Holy Angels who surround the Altar at Mass to gather any fragments of the Sacred Species that may have fallen and put them on my paten so that I could purify my Paten a second time when I returned from distributing Holy Communion. After I made this request, it never failed to happen that when I returned from distribution, my paten had visible particles of the Sacred Host on it. I am not certain if these Particles always came from those in attendance at my Mass or were gathered from other Masses being offered at the same time somewhere else, but it did not matter to me. It proved to me how the Angels are protective of the Sacred Species. They are concerned and are able to assist. The evidence was clear and inspiring. I told other priests of my experience but the reaction was either sceptical or a polite “that’s nice…”

One of the gravest problems in the reformed liturgy is its lack of appropriately detailed rubrics for handling and distributing the Eucharist in such a way that particles will not be lost—particles that the Fathers of the Church compare to gold dust and pearls. St. Thomas Aquinas in his magnificent Sequence Lauda Sion notes that Christ is wholly present under even the appearance of the smallest bit of bread thanks to the miracle of transubstantiation. Anyone who has handled altar breads will know that while they mostly hold together, they will shed crumbs now and again. The traditional rubrics made a point of always have a corporal or a paten underneath a consecrated host, wherever it was, so that such crumbs could be collected and consumed.

10th September 2021

Catholic Voice

EUCHARISTIC AMAZEMENT 5

Lastly, my priest friend was given a glimpse of what is true in any church: My parish had a mission. Upon driving over for the early Mass, I unlocked the door. As soon as I did so, I could hear a group of men and women very devoutly praying the Rosary. They were praying in a way one does not normally hear in group recitations. My first reaction (I am ashamed to admit) was annoyance. I thought to myself, “Don’t they know it is too early to begin the Rosary!” I proceeded into the sacristy and continued to listen to such devout prayer. I decided then to open the sacristy door and look out into the church. As soon as I opened the sacristy door, the praying stopped. The church was empty. I then realised of course the church had to be empty. There were no cars in the parking lot, and since I always arrived quite early, no one from my parish had been in the church. I realised then that it must have been Purgatorial souls praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It is a well known that God in His mercy sometimes allows the poor souls to pray in church in front of the Blessed Sacrament if they were devoted to the Eucharistic Lord during their lifetimes or to do at least some of their Purgatorial cleansing in familiar places.

So powerful is the Holy Eucharist that it not only spans countries and continents to unite believers everywhere to Christ, but also reaches across the ages to unite us to the Apostles and Church Fathers and every generation, and across the boundaries of life and death as it joins the Church Triumphant in heaven, the Church Militant on earth, and the Church Suffering in Purgatory. It is truly the mysterium fidei, the great Mystery of Faith, for which we can never be too well-prepared or give too much thanks. Surely what Pope John Paul II called “Eucharistic amazement” is enkindled by these stories of a good and holy priest, which remind us of the fundamentals of our faith. We are very much in danger of overlooking these fundamentals or even of denying them in practice, which leads us to the “practical atheism” that the same pope diagnosed among those who claim to believe—a practical atheism that which has returned, in ever-stranger forms, in the world of COVID, as Eucharistic irreverence and sacrilege have found new expressions and excuses.

When I asked my friend if I could share his missive, he said:

Ecce Agnus Dei - (Image courtesy Stephen Tyrell)

Could you consider leaving a bequest for CatholicVoice?

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

A bequest from you in your Last Will and Testament would help us to continue growing Yes, you may certainly go ahead and share what I’ve the publication of Catholic Voice and the written; perhaps it will inspire others as well. These experiences continue to impact me to this day and surely dissemination of Catholic Truth made me more aware of the great sacredness of the Holy Eucharist. I must also say they inspired me to personally purify the sacred linens before letting them be laundered by others—a practice long foregone by most priests.

God grants spiritual experiences like this as a powerful reminder, to their recipient and to those with whom he comes into contact, of the awesomeness of the invisible mysteries we profess and venerate.

If you are in a position to leave a bequest, however large or small, you are assured that it will be used to promote and strengthen Catholic teaching.

May God bless you for your generosity.

6 CARDINAL BURKE

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Do The Media Hate Cardinal Burke Or The Faith He Represents?

Phil Lawler

Is Cardinal Burke the object of such widespread media contempt because he will not tailor his Catholic beliefs to contemporary fashions?

The reprehensible attacks on Cardinal Raymond Burke in the mainstream media — the unseemly delight with which the liberal pundits have pounced on the news of his illness — should make any fair-minded observer wince.

You don’t have to be a traditional Catholic to realise that when a man’s life is in danger, ordinary civility requires at least a temporary suspension of polemics. You don’t have to be a moral theologian to appreciate the merit of the adage: You don’t kick a man when he’s down.

But instead of expressing sympathy for the cardinal’s plight — much less joining in his appeal for prayers — media reports are highlighting his opposition to the COVID lockdown, and suggesting (inaccurately) that he denied the severity of the disease. There is more than a hint, in many of these reports, that the cardinal is now experiencing a condign punishment for his rejection of popular opinion.

Image courtesy Stephen Tyrell

Why is Cardinal Burke so unpopular with these reporters?

Why are his views so repugnant to them, that they can scarcely conceal their delight over his present suffering?

Is it because he questioned the draconian lockdown, and suggested that some powerful forces are manipulating the situation to their own advantage? Many others had made the same arguments — not without supporting evidence.

Is it because he criticised the rush to develop vaccines using tissue lines derived from abortion? Again many others had made the same criticism, in this case with irrefutable evidence.

Is it because he decried the closing of churches, and the presumption that religious worship is not an “essential” activity? Here too he had plenty of company, but I think we are drawing closer to the truth.

Or is it simply because Cardinal Burke adamantly defends the moral teachings of the Church — because he has become the leading exemplar of Catholic resistance against the overweening pressures of secular liberalism?

10th September 2021 Catholic Voice In short, is Cardinal Burke the object of such contempt because he will not tailor his Catholic beliefs to contemporary fashions?

Cardinal Burke certainly understood that he, like millions of others, was at risk of contracting the virus. He knew the dangers. But he weighed those dangers against the demands of his faith, and concluded that he could not compromise his principles. Are there no secular journalists willing to honour a man who stood by his convictions — even if they do not share those convictions themselves?

Many reports suggest that the cardinal contracted the virus because he failed to take ordinary precautions. (Actually it seems more likely that he became infected while visiting family and friends: an innocuous activity that even the strictest guidelines do not forbid.) In the past liberal commentators have carefully avoided scolding victims for exposing themselves to disease by their unhealthy behaviour. But clearly this is a special case. Why? One particularly odious report, from NBC News, charged that the cardinal had “repeated misinformation related to conspiracy theories about the vaccines.” The article pointed to a few controversial statements — which involved

CARDINAL BURKE 7

differences of opinion rather than “misinformation” — and then offered this revealing tidbit: He has also said the best weapon for battling “the evil of the coronavirus” is a relationship with Jesus, according to Associated Press.

Where is the “misinformation” there? Where is the conspiracy theory? Why is the phrase “the evil of the coronavirus” in scare quotes? Does the NBC reporter deny that this disease is an evil? Or is the paragraph simply a way to convey, to a smug secularised readership, that Cardinal Burke holds an old-fashioned belief in the power of Jesus Christ — not just as an abstraction but as a practical antidote to worldly ills? Is that what most offends liberal sensibilities?

If so, then I hope I stand under the same condemnation that the media have heaped on Cardinal Burke. Because I believe that it is, mutatis mutandis, the same condemnation that the worldly leaders of another era heaped on Jesus for rejecting the wisdom of that age.

Martyrs die in odium fidei. But it is also possible to live surrounded by hatred for the faith. I pray that the Lord will spare the life of Cardinal Burke, who has already embraced that form of white martyrdom.

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8 THE TEMPLE OF GOD

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Jesus, Where Are You? By: The Unknown Centurion

In times such as these, times of tribulation, of chaos and confusion, of division and demonisation, of isolation and irrationality, and of secularism and sinfulness, many Christians might be tempted to cry out to heaven asking – “Jesus where are you?”

Yet, Jesus is not far from us. He came to dwell with us (John 1:14) and remains with us (Matthew 28:20). Jesus is not lost; we are. He has kept His promises. He is where He said He would be. It is we who are lost and, by our priorities and our choices, are far from Him. The answer to our pleas for our hidden Saviour and the solution to the problems of our post-Christian culture might, oddly enough, be found in a curious, seemingly misplaced Biblical story from the hidden life of Jesus.

The Finding in the Temple Was there a reason why St. Luke included in his gospel the story of the Finding in the Temple, the singular event between the infancy of Christ and His public ministry?

What to some seems merely an unnecessary reminiscence from the childhood of our Saviour, others believe that it must have been

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple - Paolo Veronese (1528 – 1588)

preserved in Sacred Scripture for a reason. But what is the reason?

Why does the gospel describe an event so embarrassing, where the chaste and obedient Joseph and sinless and selfless Mary actually lost the Son of God for three days?

Certainly, it wasn’t to show that Jesus was either a rebellious youth or the hide and seek champion of the Holy Land. Nor was it included to be an instruction that we are to keep a better eye on our children or an indication that the adolescent Christ not only impressed but outshone the most learned leaders of Judea.

True, it was a foreshadowing of the three days Jesus remained hidden, from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection, but would that be enough to justify its inclusion?

Remember Mary and Joseph didn’t just find Jesus anywhere – such as within the traveling caravan or somewhere on the streets of Jerusalem. What was significant, and might explain its inclusion in the gospels, is that Jesus was found

in the Temple. God required that His People go to the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year.

It seems that perhaps God wanted His people to go on pilgrimage, to suffer inconvenience, and to rely on His Providence, but mostly to celebrate communally. He did not make this a permanent requirement for His benefit, or because He wants or needs to be worshipped, but for their good, because they need it.

For their obedience to His statutes was how they showed their love for Him, over their own fallen and often disordered desires.

Their obedience resulted in blessings, but it also kept them safe, set them apart from their pagan neighbours, drew them closer to Him, and enabled them to be holy.

Even Mary and Jesus followed these statutes even though they were sinless and did not need to go to Jerusalem or the Temple to offer sacrifices.

Yet it was one of these religious requirements, namely Passover, that was the reason Jesus was in

10th September 2021 Catholic Voice Jerusalem and in the Temple, rather than in Nazareth some ninety miles away. If Joseph and Mary didn’t bring Jesus to Jerusalem, there would have been no Finding in the Temple and no mention of it in the Bible.

Accordingly, the young Jesus would not have shown that God desires more than the mere minimum, more than our seeking Him because we have to, or out of fear of punishment.

He wants our all, and for us to seek Him freely and frequently.

Jesus showed us without words how we are to put God first, by His spending three extra days in His Father’s House, even at the risk of disobeying, or rather, disappointing His parents, and causing them untold, indescribable sorrow, fear, and anguish.

This is the message for us, and the likely reason why the Holy Spirit inspired St. Luke to preserve it for all Christians – that we are to give God our first and our best, freely and fully, not because we are required to, but out of love, despite what others might think, even at the risk of disappointing or disobeying men.

The Temple Since its construction during the reign of King Solomon, the Temple was the centre of right worship for the Israelites. In the Temple alone, the divine presence of God filled it in a tangible and visible way for hundreds of years, only to depart before its sacking by the Babylonians.

Then when Jesus was only days old at the Presentation and then again when He was an adolescent, the presence of God after a long absence, again filled the Temple in an, even more, real, but unknown way. Did this curiously included episode, followed by Jesus’ cleansing of His Father’s House not

THE TEMPLE OF GOD 9

signify the rightful return of God to His House?

death shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Did the Finding in the Temple point to its greater fulfilment in the Age of the Church, where Jesus dwells within every tabernacle of every Catholic Church in every time and every nation, not just in a single Temple in backwater Israel?

The dual-use of puns by the Father and the Son punctuated the connection between the two and the establishment of the Church which fulfilled the promise and plan of the Father.

What Luke was telling us, and Jesus too, is that Jesus wasn’t really lost, He was just hidden, exactly where He belongs, where He was meant to be, where He remains and wants us to be, in His Father’s House.

A House For God King David wanted to build this house for God. God responded to David’s proposal with a play on words, essentially to the effect – you want to build a house for me, well I’m going to build a house for you, which will be an everlasting kingdom where your descendant who builds it, will reign forever (2 Samuel 7:5-17).

Jesus in fulfilling this promise of the Father likewise used a play on words in establishing His everlasting Kingdom upon the rock of St. Peter: “And I tell you, you are Peter (rock), and on this rock, I will build my church, and the powers of

If the Temple was the very heart of the Israelite religion and wonder of the Gentile world where God Himself dwelled and sacrifices took place, how much more supernaturally significant are our churches which fulfilled and replaced the Jewish Temple which was completely destroyed forty years after the Crucifixion and never rebuilt?

Especially when the New Temple was not built of stone and cedar, but is the very Body of Christ, a divine-human entity, animated by the beating Heart of Jesus and the breath of the Holy Spirit.

Where We Can Find Jesus Is it not possible or even likely that the Holy Spirit wanted this singular anecdote from the hidden thirty years of Christ’s life included in the Bible just to remind us where we can find Jesus? And that His obedience to the Father is everlasting as is His

10 THE TEMPLE OF GOD

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10th September 2021

love for and desire to be with us as a prisoner of love in the humble form of bread.

Yet how few people even know that Jesus is truly present, dwelling among us, and far fewer even bother to visit Him? That is why He came into the world and that is what He desires most, to transform us by the sheer power of His divine presence which is available for us to adore and receive.

Jesus showed us how we too are to commune with God, adoring and receiving Him frequently, freely, and not out of obligation, not just checking a box and leaving, but remaining in thanksgiving and retaining that level of intimacy and union unavailable elsewhere, before sharing it with others.

Why did you search for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 3:49) Isn’t that the takeaway for us today, from the mouth of Jesus Himself that the place we can always find Him is in His Father’s house? Doesn’t He remain there today, hidden, yet in His glorified Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, waiting for us to come and find Him in any unlocked Catholic Church? Doesn’t He hope that all who have lost Him, and are far from Him, come to Mass and Adoration to find Him? Doesn’t His sacrifice which saved us still take place there? And don’t His words which are still proclaimed there continue to impress and inspire even the most learned among us?

Don’t those who are reunited with Jesus in these Catholic temples of today grow in wisdom and grace, going forth to bring Jesus to others? Isn’t the reason why the formerly Christian culture is seemingly on the brink of destruction because too few people spend time with Jesus in His Father’s House, and too many are searching for Him, or substitutes for Him, in all the wrong places?

Our Churches Are Spiritual Epicentres In the thousand-year heyday of Christendom, our churches were the social and spiritual centres around which villages, towns, and cities spread, where people gathered daily to live out authentic Christian lives and to mourn and celebrate together the sad and joyful milestones of life. Today, many are too caught up in the insatiable cycle of comfort and consumption, deceived

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by demonic distractions and essentially enslaved to empty, earthly attachments, that they never think of Jesus, much less look for Him. Yet, if even Mary had to go there to find Him, and Jesus used to withdraw from the world to commune with His Father, how much more so do we need to be there, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice and receive the merits, graces, and blessings of the Cross. Whether we realise it or not, our Churches by virtue of the Mass and the ever-presence of Christ on the golden throne of the tabernacle are the spiritual epicentres of our communities.

Many churches were shuttered completely during the pandemic and many remain locked today, which makes the Evil One ecstatic and less restrained.

Now more than ever, when we’re under such constant and complex attacks, we need to seek refuge in these oases of grace and peace, to be renewed and recharged in these spiritual strongholds before going forth to defend what is good and do battle with the Enemy. For it is only here, within the New Temple established by Jesus, that we can receive the Blood of the Lamb which overcomes evil (Revelation 12:11).

10th September 2021

Catholic Voice

REGAINING THE FLOCK 11

I Can’t Do It Fr Richard Heilman

I can’t be the priest I am being asked to be.

I can’t just be a functionary while the wolves are devouring my family.

In so many words, I’m told, “Stop with all of your warnings about the wolves, and just do your scheduled Masses and plug in your parish programs. It’s not your place to stand against the forces of evil.

Leave that to others. If you stand against those who are devouring/ influencing your people, it will be seen as ‘political,’ and priests can’t have the optics of being political.”

HOGWASH! History is replete with clerics who stood against the powers-that-be in their times, beginning with the original persecutor Nero, who many scholars believe was the “beast in question” with the number 666 in the Book of Revelation.

In fact, clerics play a major role in the normalisation of evil when their silence “green lights” this normalisation. The laity very naturally believe, “If the clerics don’t care, why should we?”

Murdering unborn babies has been with us now for 48 years because almost all clerics chose to remain silent, outside of a few “check the box” statements on abortion.

Don’t tell me I am wrong. During the first half of my priesthood it was common knowledge among clerics to never even speak the word “abortion,” for fear of offending abortion advocates and being pegged as “political.” There are far too many clerics, even today, who still remain silent. They fear the tag, “Divisive,” and “not being liked.”

And, “yes,” I have vivid memories of my congregation being thinned out from the day I decided, “Nuts, I am talking about the evil of abortion openly.” Literally, I watched as folks made their “showy exits” in the middle of my homily. But, an amazing phenomenon occurred.

Those emptied pews were “filled back in” by nearly twice as many who were longing to be with a “strong Catholic family.”

You see? I believe I am called, not to be a business manager of an organisation, but to be a “Father.” A Father who wholeheartedly accepts his call to be protector and provider.

Nobody is advocating any diminishment of Sacraments, etc. to give way to this battle against the present-day forces of evil. Listen, I offer Mass on my day-off and on the rarely offered Saturday morning.

We offer an enriched Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form.

I have a 24/7 Confessional. We are excessive in the offering of Eucharistic Adoration. We teach about and provide an excessive amount of sacramentals. We practice just about every devotion known to Catholicism. I have a teaching website (romancatholicman.com) and a spiritual warriors training website (usgraceforce.com), and I have written 7 books that trains us in living the Divine Life in Christ.

Most especially, we are making every effort to “unite” ourselves with Christ and “unite” ourselves as a family of God. Very simply, as a “Father,” I am doing all I can to “provide” for my Catholic family.

It’s the “protector” part of my “fatherhood” that is met with resistance. Listen, my original intent in writing this article was to itemise all of the ways the “powers that be” are assaulting my family.

Instead, I will just say this …

It is those who seek to silence me, as they accuse me of being political, who are the real “political animals.”

Why? They are seeking to ingratiate themselves with some of the most corrupt and worst persecutors of Christians in all of salvation history.

The radical secular progressives of our time have grown to become, not only God haters, but see God’s followers as more dangerous than Al–Qaeda.

These historically corrupt (follow the money) political leaders are quickly turning our world into a Godless wasteland.

No, I will not be the business manager you want me to be. I will not shirk my responsibility as “protector”; of being a “true” Father who “actually” cares for his family, as I do everything within my power to appreciate the friends of Christians, while I warn my Catholic family of the wolves, so they may be at peace in verdant pastures and beside restful waters.

I LOVE YOU, DEAR FAMILY!!

12 INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

For Nation Shall Rise Against Nation, And Kingdom Against Kingdom; And There Shall Be Pestilences, And Famines, And Earthquakes In Places John Lacken

(Matthew 24:7-8)

In my last article I noted how the first three of God’s commandments compel us to give proper worship to Almighty God. Man is created to worship God, and worship, is simply another name for the love of the creature for his creator. When we love God and do little acts in order to please God, when we love our neighbour because it pleases God, these are acts of worship. The highest form of worship is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, given to us

by God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper on the first Holy Thursday.

I recently had the pleasure of watching the first episode of a new three part series called ‘Mass of the Ages’. The series is produced and directed by Cameron O’Hearn. Cameron ‘discovered’ the Traditional Catholic Mass in 2012, while he was working as a videographer for a non-profit organisation.

In an interview with Eric Sammons of Crisis Magazine, Cameron explains how he found that the Traditional Catholic Mass was a solid, rich, and extremely beautiful foundation in a world of greater and greater moral confusion, a world that is hostile to the Catholic Church.

Cameron wanted to share his experiences of the Traditional Catholic Mass and he felt compelled to tell the world about this treasure through the medium of film and as a series of stories. The documentary took almost two years to complete.

The timing of the completion of the documentary was uncanny.

The documentary was eventually split into a trilogy and the first part

Screenshot from Mass of Ages Episode 1 - Graphic showing some of the differences between the New Mass and the Latin Mass.

was released on August 15th 2021, one month after the ‘Motu Proprio’ of Pope Francis, ‘Traditionis Custodes’ , which seeks to curtail and eventually eliminate the celebration of the Traditional Catholic Mass also known as the ‘Mass of the Ages’ which is used as the documentary’s title.

The Second Vatican Council closed in 1965, which means that those who were familiar with the Catholic Church before the council, are all aged fifty six years and older. Many Catholics do not have any idea of the ‘old Mass’ or of the changes that took place.

There are only three genuflections made by the priest in the New Mass compared to sixteen in the Traditional Catholic Mass.

The priest makes the sign of the cross seven times in the New Mass whereas the priest celebrating the Traditional Catholic Mass makes the sign of the cross fifty four times.

One graphic that jumped out at me from the ‘Mass of the Ages’ is shown above. It compares the use of symbolic gestures between the two forms of the Mass.

What I find almost astonishing about this, is that these three symbolic gestures; the kissing of the altar; the genuflections; and the sign of the cross; are all symbols that signify the importance of acknowledging who Almighty God is and of making an act of worship in His honour. It seems almost blasphemous to remove any of these acts of reverencing Almighty God let alone to pare them down to the absolute minimum.

In the New Mass, the altar is kissed twice as opposed to seven times in the Traditional Catholic Mass.

I cannot even begin to imagine what those who crafted the New Mass were thinking of. Man cannot

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worship and honour Almighty God enough, because man is only a creature and man’s nature is fallen on account of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, and on account of man’s personal sinfulness which is a rejection of God’s commandments.

Man is not capable of making up the deficit in the worship due to Almighty God which is why Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders and gave us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ Himself, truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Sacred Host, is once again offered to God the Father, on our behalf to make reparation for our sins.

The Traditional Catholic Mass has nearly twice as many prayers as the New Mass. Many of the Psalms used in the Traditional Catholic Mass were simply stripped away after the Second Vatican Council. The prayers at the foot of the altar, where the priest abases himself before God and pleads for forgiveness for his sins before he ascends to the altar, were also done away with.

When one realises that many of the changes that came about after the Second Vatican Council were similar in nature to the changes imposed by Thomas Cranmer and his followers on the Catholics of England in the time of Henry VIII, one gets a deep sense of unease at what has been done to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

For example, Gerald B. Lyons tells us in his book ‘Introibo ad altare Dei’, that Cranmer removed many of the Psalms from the Mass. He also removed the prayers at the foot of the altar and the recitation of 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

last Gospel at the end of Holy Mass.

Lyons tells us, “Bishop Ridley, who had been made Bishop of London, ordered celebrants to face the people, the Altars to be destroyed and tables to be set up at the front of the sanctuary...”

“The ruling of the Council proclaimed:- ‘the form of table shall move the simple from superstitious opinion of the Popish Mass unto the right use of the Lord’s Supper.

For the use of an altar is to make sacrifice on it; the use of a table is to serve for men to eat upon’.”

(Introibo ad altare Dei - pp51-52) I shudder when I read of the similarities between the implementation of the Novus Ordo after the Second Vatican Council and the methods used to suppress the Catholic Faith in England. When one reads of these similarities, it is not difficult to imagine that the imposition of the Novus Ordo Mass caused many of the faithful to abandon both the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Catholic Church.

To blindly deny this connection, without allowing a thorough examination of the possible cause and effects resulting from the changes implemented in the name of the Second Vatican Council, is to deny the desire for the Truth which sets us free.

As I have mentioned before, there are those within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church who do not want us to question what happened after the Second Vatican Council.

Perhaps some of these are all too aware of what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in the preface to Monsignor Gamber’s book on the reform of the liturgy.

“We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries, and replaced it – as in a manufacturing process – with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.”

If the New Mass is as good as the Traditional Catholic Mass, then it will stand up to scrutiny and there is no need to fear those who ask questions about how the reform was conducted. If, on the other hand, it can be shown that the New Mass is not as beautiful and as rich as the Traditional Catholic Mass, then the question must be asked, ‘why do we not give what is best to Almighty God when it comes to Catholic worship?’

I think the answer to the question of beauty and worship is answered by the growing number of Catholics who now prefer to attend the Traditional Catholic Mass and the growing number of seminarians

14 INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

who are studying with traditional Catholic communities who celebrate the Traditional Catholic Mass.

One can only wonder at the motivations of those who seek to suppress faithful Catholics from worshipping Almighty God in a way that they find more fitting and in the way that Catholics have worshipped for centuries.

I highly recommend the ‘Mass of the Ages’ documentary, especially for those who, like me, do not have a great knowledge of liturgical matters. I am already eagerly awaiting the next two parts of this documentary even though I know that they may disturb my peace somewhat as I consider what was done to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the name of ‘The Spirit of Vatican II’.

Another important message from the first episode of ‘Mass of the Ages’, that has been lost on many of today’s badly formed Catholics, was given by Fr Johsua Caswell, SJC. “I think when the liturgy is offered well, then God’s action comes through. The goal of the liturgy is not to evangelise. The goal of the liturgy is to worship God, but people are evangelised when they see that experience of God being worshipped.”

We are certainly living in difficult times, what with Covid-19 and the restrictions that have been placed on Catholic worship, and then there is the situation in Afghanistan. We are witnessing what happens when man forgets the worship due to Almighty God. We have also been praying for Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke in his current illness which led me to go to his website looking for updates - www.cardinalburke.com .

I found that Cardinal Burke has

‘INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI’

some interesting presentations and homilies on the website. One presentation in particular caught my eye. It is called “Keeping the Catholic Faith in Times of Great Turmoil in the Church” and was published online on July 10th of this year.

I would like to conclude this article with some helpful points made by Cardinal Burke in this presentation.

Speaking on the governing principles of the obedience Catholics owe to their superiors he notes the following.

“It will be helpful to illustrate the true sense of obedience by addressing a current situation in the Church, which regards obedience to the Roman Pontiff.

The enemies of the Church are happy not only to praise and promote confusion and error within the Church but also to advance a worldly political reading of the governance of the Church.

For the architects of a secular and politicized Church, those who present what the Church has always taught and practiced are now the enemies of the Pope. Doctrine and

discipline, which together with Sacred Worship, are the essential gifts of Christ to us in the Church – indeed the gift of His very Self – are now viewed as the tools of supposed rigid fundamentalists who are trying to hinder the pastoral care of the faithful, as it is desired

by Pope Francis.

We even witness the sad situation of members of the hierarchy publicly accusing one another of a political and mundane agenda, as politicians attack one another.

In this regard, the fullness of power (plenitudo potestatis) essential to the exercise of the office of the Successor of Saint Peter is falsely portrayed as absolute power, thus betraying the Primacy of the Successor of Saint Peter who is the first among us in obedience to Christ alive for us in the Church through the Apostolic Tradition.

Secular voices promote the image of the Pope as a reformer who is a revolutionary, that is, as one who undertakes the reform of the Church by breaking from the Tradition, the rule of the faith (regula fidei) and the corresponding rule of law (regula iuris).

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Catholic Voice

But the office of Saint Peter has nothing to do with revolution, which is primarily a political and mundane term. As the Second Vatican Council taught, the Successor of Peter “is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.”

The fullness of power, the unhindered exercise of the office of the Roman Pontiff, is precisely to protect him from the kind of worldly and relativist thought which leads to confusion and division. It also enables him to announce and defend the faith in its integrity. Describing what has become known as “the power of the keys,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that it is founded on Saint Peter’s confession of Our Lord as God the Son Incarnate for our eternal salvation and declares: ‘Because of the faith he confessed Peter will remain the unshakeable

LET US GO TO THE ALTAR OF GOD 15

rock of the Church. His mission will be to keep this faith from every lapse and to strengthen his brothers in it.’ (CCC No 552) Thus, it is absurd to think that Pope Francis can teach something which is not in accord with what his predecessors, for example Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Saint John Paul II, have solemnly taught.”

Later Cardinal Burke says this.

“Satan, who does not sleep, is clever beyond all our imagination. He is so clever that he uses something as good and holy as our love for the Church to lead us to the loss of serenity before the challenges which she faces and to give way to behaviour – attitudes, speech and conduct – which betrays a loss of respect for pastoral authority.

Such a loss of serenity, leading to a blurred vision which undermines respect for the pastoral office,

hinders us from truly fulfilling our responsibility and turns our efforts which were first inspired for the good of the Church into acts of conflict and division contrary to the nature of the Mystical Body of Christ in which each member bears the burdens of his brothers and sisters.

It is helpful to recall the words of Saint Paul to the early Christians of Galatia: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2) There is much else of note in Cardinal Burke’s presentation which gives us courage and hope as we realise that God has not abandoned us, but we, for our part, must bear public witness to the Truth.

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16 THE WRATH OF GOD

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

His Wrath Is Not Turned Back, His Hand Is Still Outstretched!

Pondering The Wrath Of God As A Work Of Revelation Mons. Charles Pope

When reading Scripture that mentions the wrath of God, most think of His wrath in human terms.

But we must be clear that God does not get angry the way we do.

Further, our God is not moody: pleasant and patient one moment and then angry and punishing the next. No, God does not suffer from mood swings or throw tantrums.

God is love; stably, serenely, and consistently so.

of light of revelation, as a hand pointing out our iniquity. Within the longer passage below there is this refrain: For all this, his wrath is not turned back, and his hand is still outstretched! For indeed, God’s wrath casts a light on our wrongs and his outstretched hand points to them, revealing them and executing their results. Let’s consider Isaiah’s treatment of the revelatory wrath of God.

So then what is God’s wrath? Allow me to summarise by saying that God’s wrath is His “passion” to set things right. His wrath is His work to root out sin and injustice and bring forth holiness and righteousness.

The Lord has sent word against Jacob, It falls upon Israel; And all the people know it, Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria, Those who say In arrogance and pride of heart, “Bricks have fallen, But we will build with cut stone; Sycamores are felled, But we will replace them with cedars.”

Another thing to note about God’s wrath is that the anger is really more in us than in God. The wrath of God is our experience of the total incompatibility of our unrepentant sin before the holiness of God. It is like fire and water: they do not mix. And one can hear the wrathful conflict when fire and water come together. So the sinner in the presence of the all holy God is going to experience a conflict. It is not so much that God is angry as that the sinner is incapable of enduring His glory, so bright and awesome. It is like wax before the fire.

I would like explore how God’s wrath is also a work of revelation.

St. Paul says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth (Romans 1:18). And so St. Paul speaks of God’s wrath as being revealed, as being a work of revelation. As such, it exposes our injustice, error, and sin.

A text we read in the Liturgy of the Hours (from Isaiah Ch. 9) also develops God’s wrath as a kind

But the Lord raises up Their foes against them And stirs up their enemies to action:

Aram on the East And the Philistines on the west Devour Israel with open mouth.

For all this, His wrath is not turned back, And His hand is still outstretched!

(Is 9:8-12) And thus we see that the wrath of God reveals in Israel a bold, prideful resistance to His warnings. “Bricks have fallen … [and] sycamores have been felled.” These were warnings from God that neither natural nor man-made structures can stand; they crumble under the weight of sin and injustice. Yet instead of heeding the warning, the people doubled-down on their sins, arrogantly thinking that they could replace what God had established with designs of their own.

For us today a similar pattern is evident, as our families crumble

and we twist nature. But even seeing the darkness and deep confusion we have ushered in, we still do not seek God’s light again. Rather, our culture “doubles down” and arrogantly asserts that we can redefine marriage, family, sexuality, and even the nature of things themselves. We sweep aside the “bricks and sycamores” that God has established, thinking that we can do better with the stone and cedars of our imagining.

Having instructed Israel through His law and warned her to no avail, God handed Israel over to her enemies, just as today we are being handed over to the enemies of our rebellion: STDs, depopulation, divorce, cohabitation, sexual confusion of a colossal nature, the tragic loss of our children through abortion, the decline of our children (lack of discipline, lack of proper psychological formation) due to broken families — the list could go on and on.

When the text says that God “handed them over,” it means that He let them have their own way and allowed them to suffer the consequences. As would any loving father, God seeks first to teach and warn His children. Next, He resorts to punishments that seek to draw us back from the full impact of our sin.

But if all these fail, He finally hands us over to our own designs.

When we experience wrath, we experience the total incompatibility of our sinful stance with the glory for which we were made. There comes on us, collectively and individually, a burning indignation toward God and any who represent Him or remind us of the truth for which we were made. We project our anger on God. But God is not angry. Rather, He has a passion, a

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will to set things right. His justice and love are one reality.

How is the wrath of God a work of revelation? It shows us the full consequences of our sinful rejection of God and His plan for us. The fact is, we grow weak and become easy prey for our enemies, both literal and figurative. For Ancient Israel this meant Aram and the Philistines.

For us in the decaying, onceChristian West it means we become too weak to resist enemies like lust and greed. We can no longer make commitments and keep them; we have little self-control. These enemies devour our strength, cloud our minds, and erode our progress.

This wrathful condition is a revelation from God, showing us what we are when we reject His favour, His mercy, and His call to truth. As a work of revelation, there is always the hoped-for response: repentance. But, sadly, the text continues in this way: The people do not turn To him who struck them, Nor seek the Lord of hosts.

And so the wrath continues, revealing to us in ever-deeper and darker tones the full depths of our condition, of our sad state. Sin grows; the young especially suffer from the sins of parents and elders.

If we do not want grace, we will not have it; if we do not seek His mercy and grace, we will be increasingly without them. We cannot endure God’s holiness and justice apart from grace and mercy, and so we experience His holiness as wrath. This reveals to us our grave condition.

Time does not permit further commentary on the text below (from Isaiah). But as you read it, is there not a sobering sense that what is described is all too familiar?

Is not this wrathful recitation a revelation?

The leaders of this people mislead them And those to be led are engulfed.

For this reason, the Lord does not Spare Their young men,

And their orphans and widows He does not pity; They are wholly profaned and sinful, And every mouth gives vent to folly.

For all this, His wrath is not turned back, His hand is still outstretched!

For wickedness burns like fire, Devouring brier and thorn; It kindles the forest thickets, Which go up in columns of smoke.

At the wrath of the Lord of hosts The land quakes, And the people are like fuel for fire; No man spares his brother, Each devours the flesh of his neighbour.

Though they hack on the right, They are hungry; though they eat on the left, They are not filled.

Manasseh devours Ephraim, And Ephraim Manasseh; Together they turn on Judah.

For all this, His wrath is not turned back, His hand is still outstretched!

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes And who write oppressive decrees, Depriving the needy of judgment And robbing my people’s poor Of their rights,

Making widows their plunder, And orphans their prey!

What will you do On the day of punishment, When ruin comes from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?

Where will you leave your wealth, Lest it sink beneath the captive Or fall beneath the slain?

For all this, His wrath is not turned back, His hand is still outstretched!

Yes, as the text asks, what will we do on the day of full judgment? Even when we are in our worst state, God allows His wrath (our experience of His holy justice) to be a revelation to us, in the hope that before our final judgment we will finally call on Him. For on that day, the door of possible change will close and our condition will be final and forever fixed.

Woe to us that God’s wrath must be our revelation, his wrath is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched. Better for us to repent and allow His beautiful truth and mercy to be our light, our revelation.

Have mercy on us, Lord. Give us added graces to repent!

“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)

18 GOD IS LOVE

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Love Is All You Need Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Christianity owes much to the Jews. It was they who first taught us the two great commandments of love: that we should love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and that we should love our neighbour as ourselves.

The Lord of Life drew these two commandments of love from the Old Testament, and the entire New Testament is centred upon them.

For He taught us that these two commandments are the whole of the law. Love is all you need.

We need love more than ever at present, as the three monstrous totalitarian tyrannies of the modern world – the Fascism of Mr Putin’s Russia, the ideological Communism and economic Fascism of Xi Jinping’s China and the militant Islamic extremism of the Taliban, ISIS and al-Qaida – make common cause against the gentle, enlightened, prosperous democracies of the West.

For totalitarianism, in all its forms, is ineluctably rooted in hate. It is instinctually nihilistic. It is the purveyor of disease, destruction and death. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are natural totalitarians.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.” (1 John 4:18-21)

What is disturbing is the extent to which, via Communist infiltration of the institutions of the West, the destructive hatred at the heart of totalitarianism is now in the hearts of many citizens of Western countries.

our Blessed Lady was a symbol of hatred and oppression and a calculated personal insult to him as a “humanist”.

Consider, for instance, the teacher and soi-disant “humanist” (which, like “woke”, is a code-word for “Communist”) who tried to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary that the school caretaker had erected at the school on the stated ground that

In a rare instance of common sense, an education tribunal found that the “humanist” teacher’s claim to have been discriminated against and insulted by the installation of the statue was nonsense and slung it out.

There is a lot of nonsense about at present, and much of it is dangerous nonsense. So-called “critical race theory” is a pseudo-academic credo that preaches hatred against anyone who, arguably through no fault of his own, was born white. Then there is the notion that men should be hated because they are the dominant and oppressive gender.

Frankly, it is time for all this hate-filled nonsense to be openly

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opposed, root and branch. Anyone who uses pseudo-academic pretexts for preaching hatred against any section of society should be defunded. Critical race theory should be banned outright.

Communists, under the cover of speaking up for allegedly disadvantaged people who, arguably through no fault of their own, were not born white, are in reality deliberately fostering divisions between people with differing degrees of hereditary suntan. They are trying to persuade the white population to beat its breast and apologise for having been born white. They maintain that, to this day, people not born white are oppressed by the white population, who are described as “supremacist”.

Why is it, then, that millions of nonwhites are clustering at the southern border of the United States? Are they citizens of the United States desperately fleeing the white supremacists and trying to get out of the U.S. just as fast as they can, so as to find safety and prosperity in Fascist Russia or Communist China or Islamist Afghanistan?

Um, no. They are non-citizens desperately trying to get into the U.S. Now, why would nonwhites clamour to get into a white supremacist country that persecuted everyone with some degree of hereditary suntan?

It is a measure of the idleness of the ineffectual Republican party, an indolence bordering upon outright abdication, that very simple points like this have not been made in public debate.

But there is an even simpler point, which, whenever it is made, instantly transforms any debate.

And that is the simple statement that, whatever the colour of your skin, we love you all dearly.

To a Christian, everyone is his neighbour. Everyone is lovable.

Everyone is worthy of our affection.

The very word for sin in the Greek of early Christian theology is hamartia, which does not mean a wilful and deliberate transgression calculated to cause harm but merely a missing of the point. In effect, the default position of the Christian is that anyone who commits an act that is intrinsic inhonestum – in itself wrong – is doing so because perhaps he has not fully understood that what he has done is wrong.

The Lord of Life Himself made this point clear when he prayed to His Father for those who had nailed him to the Cross, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The one answer to the totalitarian hate-merchants that works most powerfully is to tell them that you love them, even though you disagree with them. I was once canvassing in Australia for a Christian party.

A Muslim passer-by came up and remonstrated with me, saying that a Christian party was offensive to Muslims.

“No, it isn’t,” I said. “For there is far more to unite us, the people of the book, than to divide us.”

The response was fascinating. The Muslim looked astonished, and then

very pleased. He had not, until that moment, realised that, though we might not love some of the things that the extremists and zealots of his faith do, we did love him – and even them. He went away all smiles.

Too often, Christianity comes across to the rest of the world as a creed with too many rules and regulations, when its entire focus is in reality upon love. And, in passing, after 2000 years the Code of Canon Law is still one small volume no longer than the average paperback. How many nations can say that of their statute-book?

Let us end by reminding that “humanist” teacher, since the Feast of the Assumption is just past, that the Communism to which he subscribes preaches that in the West women are not the oppressors but the oppressed. And if he will read the Communist manifesto of Marx and Engels he will find there the doctrine of “the community of women”, by which all women are the common property of men, to be used and abused at men’s will.

Perhaps the “humanist” should become a Christian. For what is more human than love?

But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: (Matthew 5:44)

20 TO BEAR WITNESS

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

A NEW AND DIFFERENT WITNESS Mary Kearns

Anyone who spent time at the International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine of Knock during the summer months will have been aware of the army of young helpers at the shrine. These are stewards and ushers, some employed by Knock shrine and some volunteers.

It is a consequence of the restrictions placed on Knock Shrine, as it is elsewhere but this has had the unexpected benefit of bringing many young men and women to the shrine.

Formerly known as the Knock Novena week, the date from the Feast of the Assumption on the 15th August to the Feast of Our Lady of Knock on the 17th and the anniversary of the Apparition on the 21st means that the Mayo Shrine sees a greatly increased number of pilgrims. All want to be present at Mass and receive the Sacrament of Penance and to spend time with Our Blessed Lady in the Apparition Chapel.

Obviously for those who are very familiar with Knock and often make a pilgrimage there, it is disagreeable and irksome to be told by a security officer where to sit or that there is no room in the Apparition Chapel or to limit our visit to fifteen minutes.

We are obliged to queue for an hour to gain admittance to Mass in the Basilica and even longer during the novena week and on Sundays. We can no longer choose what priest we prefer to hear our Confession in the Reconciliation chapel where it is necessary to queue and where restrictions also operate. Perhaps not surprisingly, the wearing of face coverings is strictly enforced throughout the shrine.

However, these experiences are somewhat softened by the witness of well-trained teenagers who carry out their duties with courtesy and respect. It is edifying to see these

Students tidying graves for John Paul II awards (image John Paul II awards website)

young people becoming familiar with genuflecting before the tabernacle and acting reverently in all the chapels. There is a sense of commitment and solidarity among them and as anyone who knows much about young people realises, they place a high value on friendship, on loyalty and on authenticity. While we bemoan the fact that throughout Ireland, few of them are practising their Catholic Faith, we should recognise that nearly all of them are people of integrity - likely more so than many Catholics were at this age.

Some who are involved at Knock are employed by the Shrine authorities while others are volunteers, known as VAKS and are working during the summer months as part of the Catholic activity in the programme for the Pope John Paul II Award.

This Award was created to commemorate the late Pope Saint John Paul II who was so committed to young people and who had confidence in them. The Award was launched by the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, His Excellency Most Rev Dr Giuseppe Lazzarotto on 7th November 2006 in the Diocese of

Derry, Ireland. Part of the aim is to make young people visible in their church, community and society.

The Pope John Paul II Award is for anyone between the age of 16 and 18. The Award is run by the Diocese and in Ireland all dioceses are now participating.

The following is an extract from the web-site.

“The Pope John Paul II Award is a faith achievement award for young people between the age of 16 and 18. It is non-competitive, inclusive, flexible and voluntary.

The Award enables participants to take an active part in the life of their Church – in the life of their community and society. It enables young people become more aware of the teaching and role of the Catholic Church in the world and to engage at a deep level with Christ.

The Award is committed to helping young people enhance their spiritual, physical, emotional and social development through participation in school, parish and community activities. As

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Catholic Voice

well as the feeling of personal achievement that a participant will gain from taking part in the Award, participation will help demonstrate the young person’s commitment to a task and goal.

Projects can be chosen from the following areas:

The Award is non-competitive, flexible and voluntary and requires an ongoing commitment. Awards are earned by taking part in parish and social activities – 1 hour per week over 8, 14 or 20 weeks. There are 3 Awards – Gold, Silver & Bronze. Those that have completed the Gold Award have a further option of completing the Papal Cross Award.

Spiritual – Helping to facilitate retreats, liturgies and services through school or the centre;

Activities that qualify for the Award are very many ranging from helping to put together a Christmas hamper for homeless and socially deprived people, to accompanying an adult leader to Lourdes and assisting with looking after sick children. VAKS (Volunteer At Knock Shrine) is another activity which has attracted teenagers.

On completion of the 26 hours in the parish involvement and social awareness strands, the young person completes a project. The nature of the project will be decided in consultation with the student, their school and the catechetical centre. The project will require a commitment level of 10-20 hours depending on the chosen activities.

Through the project the young person will demonstrate on-going commitment to faith and good works.

When we are baptised we become members of the Body of Christ.

This means that we are called to be the presence of Christ in the world.

As the Body of Christ, we belong to the community of the Church. We live out this belonging in our parish.

For the Church, for the Body of Christ to be fully alive everybody needs to be actively involved. There are many things we can do in the parish.

Pastoral – such as the promotion of good choices within school or parish context;

Peer Ministry – Working with younger pupils in school or at parish level to deliver faith based programmes such as GIFT or ‘Walk Tall’ Personal Skills Tasks – Art, Computer, Public Speaking, Music, Drama. Examples could be designing activities and ideas for group work at retreats, designing/ making banners. Graphic design for a newsletter. Making a PowerPoint presentation or designing posters for Diocesan Events. Working with Diocesan Initiatives such as the youth choir or pilgrimages.

TO BEAR WITNESS 21 parish. The Pope John Paul II Award is coordinated from its head office in Derry, Northern Ireland.

It was created by Fr Paul Farren in his role as director of the Derry Diocesan Catechetical Centre.

Since 2006, it has been running successfully in schools and parishes throughout Ireland and the UK. It is now been actively promoted in the United States.”

The Pope John Paul II Project centres in particular on being involved in the liturgy of the parish church. It includes participation at Mass and preparing articles for the parish bulletin or newsletter and helping with the decoration of the church and assisting the Sacristan.

The participant will complete a personal profile about their project that may contain photos and examples of work and must include a 300 word summary.

“Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the Church’s history, where Christianity will again be characterised more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intensive struggle against evil and bring the good into the world—that let God in.” (Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in Salt of the Earth)

Participants can earn their Award by taking an active role in their

For catechesis and liturgical formation: marykeenankearns@gmail.com

John Paul II Awards at Knock Shrine - (image John Paul II awards website)

22 ISLAM RISING

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

The Fall of Afghanistan Anne Keeling And so the 1,400 years old saga of Islamic jihad continues as the extremist terrorist Taliban take over Afghanistan after twenty years of US military intervention.

Chaotic scenes from the beleaguered country dominated mainstream media last week with the streets of the capital Kabul thronged by citizens desperate to flee.

People clung to planes departing the airport and a video appeared on Twitter showing three men who tragically fell from a US Air Force jet to their deaths seconds after take-off.

The pandemonium in response to the Taliban victory evidently belied the hopeful spin that some media reports tried to put on this turn of events. Islam commentator Robert Spencer was not so naive.

“The Taliban rule strictly according to Sharia. If Sharia were as benign as Islamic spokesmen and Leftists in the West insist, no one would be desperately trying to get out of Afghanistan now.”

As the people took flight in terror plaudits meanwhile came from other parts of the Islamic world.

Imran Khan, prime minister of neighbouring Pakistan, declared on the 16th of August that Afghanistan had managed to break the “shackles of slavery”.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said in a statement: “We congratulate the Muslim Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan lands, and we congratulate the Taliban movement and its brave leadership on this victory, which culminated its long struggle over the past 20 years.”

Image source Flickr

Reactions and comments such as these can lead to confusion and many Westerners are confounded by the nature of Islam. Despite the long history of militant jihad many Catholics, for example, misunderstand and fail to perceive the real threat of extremist Islam.

William Kilpatrick, of the Turning Point Project, aims to educate Catholics in particular about Islam. The following is from Mr Kilpatrick’s profile on the catholicspeakers.com website.

“Although Christians in the Muslim world are the victims of widespread persecution, Christians in the West have been lulled into complacency by the largely unexamined belief that Islam and Christianity share much in common. Dr. Kilpatrick offers a wake-up call for those who underestimate the threat from Islam.”

religious people, and so they tend to underestimate the importance of religion in people’s lives. But the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram and the like are deeply religious. They are not fighting simply for land, or for natural resources, but for Allah. The wars they fight are religious wars. And one of the main tenets of their religion is that the whole world must be subject to Allah.”

We are all familiar with the oftrepeated cry of “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is greater) as it has been offered up by Muslims in defiance in various situations.

Dr Kilpatrick goes on:

Dr Kilpatrick has written an article “The Fall of Afghanistan and the Resurgence of Radical Islam” in which he makes clear observations that should be a warning to the West:

“And because of the quick and decisive manner in which the Taliban retook Afghanistan, another attack seems all the more likely. Indeed, it now seems likely that we will witness a powerful resurgence of Islamic jihad activity all over the world. The humiliating departure of the American forces from Afghanistan will be taken as a sign of Allah’s will by many Muslims throughout the world.”

“Many of our policy makers, however, are not particularly

The Taliban fighters, having swept into Kabul, released some five

10th September 2021 thousand Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners from Bagram Air Base, to swell their ranks of hardened warriors. They have millions of dollars worth of military equipment that they acquired from the retreating Afghan army.

In case we should think that the Taliban seek simply to live and rule quietly in Afghanistan here is what one of their number, commander Muhammed Arif Mustafa told CNN:

Catholic Voice In war time, or indeed, at the best of times, it can be hard to get accurate reports of what is happening.

One report from Christians in Afghanistan in the last few days is alarming if it is accurate but there is no reason to believe that it is not. It comes from a group called Frontiers Alliance International and is dated the 17th of August:

“It’s our belief that one day, mujaheddin will have victory, and Islamic law will come not to just Afghanistan, but all over the world. We are not in a hurry. We believe it will come one day. Jihad will not end until the last day.”

“Afghanistan: Official Statement from Leaders in the Underground Church. What we are witnessing right now is the decimation of the country and people of Afghanistan.

We are watching twenty years of work and the strengthening of a nation being destroyed in a single day.

Afghanistan is Number Two in the Open Doors 2021 list of countries where Christians are most persecuted. The persecution there is described as “clan oppression” or a form of ethnic antagonism.

The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The US Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge.

All borders to

ISLAM RISING 23 neighbouring countries are closed and all flights to and from have been halted, with the exception of private planes. People are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them.”

The report is a sickening reminder of those that we heard and read when ISIS began their murderous rampage of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. It prompts us to pray for all Afghan citizens – Christian and Muslim – that they will know God’s protection in this crisis.

The statement concludes: “The Afghan Church and GCM (Global Catalytic Ministries) believe that the best days are before us, and we will witness the greatest movement of salvation among Muslims from the ashes of this catastrophe.”

24 MARIAN APPARITIONS

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

Marian Apparitions — The Many Faces of Our Blessed Mother Jac Man We have been reminded numerous times throughout history that we are not alone.

Our Blessed Mother has appeared to many throughout the centuries.

She has presented herself to people of all ages and nationalities and her messages to us often include requests for prayer and repentance.

However, not many of these apparitions are known to most Catholics. Here are just a few.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyec, Mexico, 1531 - (Vatican Approved) Probably the most famous Marian apparition occurred in Mexico. The Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego just 10 years after the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortes. Speaking in his native Aztec language, Mary requested a church be erected in her honour.

Juan Diego took the request to the Archbishop of Mexico City.

The archbishop asked Juan Diego to request a miraculous sign to prove Mary’s identity. On her third

apparition, Mary instructed Juan Diego to gather flowers from the summit of Tepeyac Hill. He did as instructed and found roses blooming there in the cold of December.

Carrying the flowers in his cloak, Juan Diego returned to Mexico City. Juan Diego emptied his cloak before the archbishop. The flowers fell out revealing an image of the Virgin on its fabric.

The cloak is still venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe, built as requested in Mary’s honour. After nearly 500 years, the image is still vibrant.

Our Lady of Good Help, Champion, Wisconsin, United States, 1859 (Bishop Approved) Few modern Catholics are aware of the Marian apparitions in the United States. In 1859, a Belgian immigrant girl named Adele Brise reported seeing a woman clothed in white. The woman had a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars above her blond hair. The apparition took place in the area of Robinsonville (now Champion), Wisconsin.

After seeing the apparition a third time, Adele asked for the woman’s name. The lady replied, “I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.” Brise accepted the mission. She went on to become a Third Order Franciscan. Adele devoted her life to teaching Catechism and Evangelising to children.

Our Lady of Guadalupe in Prussian occupied lands faced these difficulties as well. Severe restrictions were enacted against Catholics under the Kulturkampf regime.

In such times of suffering Our Blessed Mother often reaches out to us. So it was in 1877.

A 13-year-old girl named Justyna Szafrynska was returning home from First Communion preparations at the church in Gietrzwald. During the ringing of the Angelus Bells, she saw a woman in white on the maple tree near the presbytery. The woman was on a gold and pearl adorned throne.

Our Lady of Gietrzwald, Gietrzwald, Warmia-Mazury, Poland 1877 (Bishop Approved)

The apparitions continued. When Justyna was accompanied by her friend Barbara Samulowska, they both saw Our Lady. They asked what the woman wanted and she replied, “I want you to pray the Rosary daily.” Our Lady spoke in the local dialect similar to the Polish language.

The mid 1870’s were a difficult time for Catholics in Prussia. Poles

Our Lady visited Szafrynska and Samulowska daily, during

10th September 2021

Catholic Voice

MARIAN APPARITIONS 25

the evening Rosary service. The apparitions would continue for nearly three months.

Our Lady of Akita, Yazawadai, Akita, Japan, 1973. (Bishop Approved) The 20th century was a time of many apparitions of the Virgin Mary. One such extraordinary event occurred in Yazawadai outside the city of Akita in Japan.

A statue of the Virgin Mary adorned the chapel in the convent of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist. The statue, carved from a single piece of wood, included a globe and cross.

In 1973, Sister Agnes Sasagawa, a convert from Buddhism, saw the statue come alive and speak to her.

She heard the words clearly even though she had become deaf months earlier. The nuns at Yazawadai also reported stigmata on the statue, as well as on the hands of Sister Sasagawa.

Sasagawa reported three messages from the Blessed Virgin, each spoken in her native tongue. The final message offers a sombre warning: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.

The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confrères . . . churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”

Two years later in 1975, the statue began to weep. The tears continued at intervals for the next 6 years on 101 occasions. In 1983, Sister Agnes Sasagawa regained her hearing as promised during the apparitions.

The Visionaries of Kibeho - (Source www.kibeho-sanctuary.com) Our Lady of Kibeho, Kibeho, Rwanda, 1981 (Vatican Approved) Kibeho is located in the southern part of Rwanda. Beginning in late 1981, 16-year-old Alphonsine Mumureke began seeing visions of a woman. The woman presented herself as “Nyina Wa Jambo,” which means “Mother of the Word.” The apparitions continued and each time the Virgin asked for prayer without hypocrisy.

Alphonsine was initially viewed as a mad girl. Many begged for a sign of credibility, so Alphonsine asked Our Lady to appear to others. A short time later, two other classmates also saw Our Lady.

First Nathalie Mukamazimpaka saw Our Lady in January of 1982.

According to Nathalie, the Virgin was dressed in a white dress with a wide blue-sky veil that took the shape of a cape. The colour of her skin was neither white nor black, but between the two.

Two months later Marie Claire Mukangango also became a witness. Marie Claire was formerly outspoken against the apparitions

claimed by Alphonsine. After seeing Our Lady, Marie supported the message of the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows.

During Her apparitions, Mary offered a consistent message of repentance.

Reflection on Our Lady’s Presence Our Blessed Mother offers hope to Catholics all over the world with each appearance. And she consistently calls us to prayer and repentance.

During each vision, Our Blessed Mother speaks the common language of the persons to whom she appears. Her skin colour varies and facial features adapt to the people she visits.

As Catholics, we venerate the Virgin Mary. We offer this veneration regardless of the skin colour or eye shape she adopts during her apparitions in this mortal world.

Perhaps ironically, these superficial features are characteristics that the modern secular world is using to sow division between people.

26 SAINT MATTHEW

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

September 21 Saint Matthew Apostle And Evangelist Dom Prosper Gueranger

The name of Matthew signifies one who is given. He gave himself when, at the word of Jesus, ‘follow Me’, he rose up and followed Him; but far greater was the gift he received from God in return. The Most High, who looks down from heaven upon the low things of earth, loves to choose the humble for the princes of His people.

Levi, occupied in a profession that was hated by the Jews and despised by the Gentiles, belonged to the lowest rank of society; but still more humble was he in heart, when, laying aside the delicate reserve shown in his regard by the other evangelists, he openly placed his former ignominious title beside the glorious one of apostle.

By so doing, he published the magnificent mercy of Him, who had come to heal the sick not the healthy, and to call not the just but sinners. For thus exalting the abundance of God’s grace, he merited its superabundance: Matthew was called to be the first evangelist.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost he wrote, with that inimitable simplicity which speaks straight to the heart, the Gospel of the Messias expected by Israel, and announced by the prophets; of the Messias the teacher and Saviour of His people, the descendant of its kings, and Himself the King of the daughter of Sion; of the Messias who had come not to destroy the Law, but to bring it to its full completion in an everlasting, universal covenant.

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.

Saint Matthew - Guido Reni (1575 - 1642) In his simple-hearted gratitude, Levi made a feast for his divine Benefactor. It was at this banquet that Jesus, defending His disciple as well as Himself, replied to those who pretended to be scandalized: ‘Can the children of the Bridegroom mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.’

Clement of Alexandria bears witness to the apostle’s subsequent austerity; assuring us that he lived on nothing but vegetables and wild fruits. The legend will tell us moreover of his zeal for the Master who had so sweetly touched his heart, and of his fidelity in preserving for Him souls inebriated with the ‘wine springing forth virgins.’

This fidelity, indeed, cost him his life: his martyrdom was in defence and confirmation of the duties and rights of holy virginity. To the end of time the Church, in consecrating her virgins, will make use of the beautiful blessing pronounced by

him over the Ethiopian princess, which the blood of the apostle and evangelist has imbued with a peculiar virtue.

The Church gives us this short account of a life better known to God than to men.

Matthew, also named Levi, was an apostle and evangelist. He was sitting in the custom-house at Capharnaum when called by Christ, whom he immediately followed; and then made a feast for him and his disciples.

After the resurrection of Christ, and before setting out for the province which it was his lot to evangelize, Matthew was the first to write the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He wrote it in Hebrew, for the sake of those of the circumcision, who had been converted. Soon after, he went into Ethiopia, where he preached the Gospel, and confirmed his teaching by many miracles.

One of the greatest of these was his raising to life the king’s daughter,

10th September 2021 whereby he converted the king and his wife, and the whole country.

After the king’s death, his daughter Iphigenia was demanded in marriage by his successor Hirtacus, who, finding that through Matthew’s exhortation she had vowed her virginity to God and now persevered in her holy resolution, ordered the apostle to be put to death, as he was celebrating the holy mysteries at the altar.

Thus on the eleventh of the Kalends of October, he crowned his apostolate with the glory of martyrdom. His body was translated to Salerno; and in the time of Pope Gregory VII it was laid in a church dedicated in his name, where it is piously honoured by a great concourse of people.

How pleasing must thy humility have been to our Lord; that humility which has raised thee so

SAINT MATTHEW 27

Catholic Voice high in the kingdom of heaven, and which made thee, on earth, the confidant of Incarnate Wisdom.

all sing the new canticle reserved to those whose love here on earth has been undivided.

The Son of God, who hides His secrets from the wise and prudent and reveals them to little ones, renovated thy soul by intimacy with Himself, and filled it with the new wine of His heavenly doctrine.

O evangelist of holy virginity, and martyr for its sake! Watch over the choicest portion of our Lord’s flock.

Remember also, 0 Levi, all those for whom, as thou te11est us, the Emmanuel received His beautiful name of Saviour. The who1e redeemed world honours thee and implores thy assistance. Thou hast recorded for us the admirable sermon on the mountain: by the path of virtue there traced out, lead us to that kingdom of heaven, which is the ever-recurring theme of thy inspired writing.

So fully didst thou understand His love, that He chose thee to be the first historian of his life on earth.

The Man-God revealed Himself through thee to the Church. She has inherited thy glorious teaching as she calls it in her Secret; for the Synagogue refused to understand both the divine Master and the prophets His heralds.

There is one teaching, indeed, which not all, even of the elect, can understand and receive; just as in heaven not all follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, nor can

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

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 THE LIMITED POWER OF DEMONS

Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

On the Power of Demons Ambrose Rucker - Christendom College In this article we are going to examine the church teachings on the power of demons over humanity, how they operate, and how they are limited. First off I will explain why the modern-day belief that demonic activity is virtually non-existent in the modern world is not only wrong but dangerous. Then we shall look at the catechism and Sacred Scripture to gain a basic understanding of what demons are and what they are able to do. Finally, we shall end with a discussion of how demons can directly interfere with us and how easily they can be thwarted by their lack of power in the face of God. There are several ways in which modern day people ignore and dismiss the demonic in today’s day and age. There are those who simply think that by Christ’s resurrection the powers of hell have been broken, which is true, but then on top of that they believe that the demons have been completely overshadowed and are virtually trapped in hell, unable to leave or bother humanity without getting promptly sent back to the abyss by Jesus and the angels.

Then there is the much more clear and dangerous idea that attempts to call the very idea of the existence of the demonic into question using the very words of Scripture.

As the article Christian faith and Demonology from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says:

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“Some critics, believing that they can define Jesus’ own position, claim that none of his words guarantees demonic reality. They assert that affirmation of the existence of this reality, where it is made, rather reflects the ideas of Jewish writings, or is dependent on New Testament traditions, but not on Christ. Since it does not form part of the central Gospel message, the existence of demonic reality, they say, no longer has a call on our faith today, and we are free to reject it.”

Beliefs such as this only serve to confuse those who are lax in their faith, shake the belief of those who are strong but wavering and give unnecessary strength to the demons as those who are uniformed about the demonic are susceptible to attacks from it and can easily be overwhelmed.

Moreover, the idea that demons are inactive in the modern world is simply absurd. In reality the need for exorcisms and the number of people reaching out to the church has grown in modern times. In America alone in 2011 the whole country had fewer than 15 priests who where known to be exorcists. In 2018 there were over 100. Thus, rather than subscribing to the ill-fated belief that demons are not real, we should be at peace with the knowledge that they are in fact real but we as Catholics have the knowledge necessary to protect ourselves and fight in the holy war against the fallen angels.

The demons themselves are fairly simple to understand.

In the beginning when God created all the angels in goodness there were those who were jealous of God and wished to be like Him, and, led by Satan, refused to accept the truth that humanity, which seemed so much lower than them, would become like equals to them in heaven.

St. Thomas explains that since angels are created rational moral beings they are capable of sinning despite being such high spiritual beings. The demons’ sin that caused their fall can be divided into three parts: pride, envy and resemblance to God. The fallen angels were prideful in that they took credit for their goodness without giving credit to the source of their goodness: God. Envy came about from falling into the conceit of overstating their goodness in their minds and thus thinking themselves as capable of being equal to God. Finally, by their arrogance they thought themselves so good that normal rules did not apply to them and they could rise higher than their nature allowed. In Scripture we see examples of demonic activity in all these ways; a good example of the arrogance of Satan occurs when he tried to tempt Jesus in the desert in Matthew 4:1-11. He thought himself capable of turning the very Son of God away from Himself.

Lastly, we know the three ways that the demons were intellectually punished for their sin. Their natural knowledge was darkened into nocturnal knowledge, still

10th September 2021

Catholic Voice

higher than ours but not as clear as the good angels. Their supernatural knowledge became speculative and unclear to them, and they completely lost their affective and delectable supernatural knowledge of the mystery of God. The demons work against God in a twisted but still ordered way (ordered ultimately by God and His Providential plan, that is), and thus imitate in a twisted version the ways in which the good angels interact with us. The demonic influence is always a parasite of goodness and in that way can trick us if we are not careful.

They have in effect seven principles of their activity. First, they will attempt to lie to us with partial truths, or present things that are true and good outside of the proper context.

Second, they will attempt to keep themselves hidden and put the blame of their actions on other people or on yourself while they remain in the shadows still causing harm.

Third, they will try and isolate us from one another and God, making us feel alone and trapping us within our own thoughts.

Fourth, they attempt to get us to hyper focus on one thing, even a

good thing, and thus get us to miss everything else that is more important or a higher good.

Fifth, they try and imitate God and the good angels, mostly by attaching themselves at the end of actual spiritual experiences with God and the good angels and acting like a continuation of them and thus distracting and misleading us from the original message we just received.

Sixth, they will throw lesser goods into our attention to try and distract us from the True Good.

Seventh and lastly, they will torment us by harassing us with mind games of headaches, distractions, making things go wrong and so on. They also can cause obsessions over places, things or even people in events we know as hauntings.

Finally, they can take control over a person through possession, but this can only be achieved by permission of the person or someone who has authority over the person. It is by these means that the demons interfere in our lives and attempt to lead us astray.

However, when compared to the power of God they are mere annoyances, literally flies that by God’s assistance we can swat away.

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THE LIMITED POWER OF DEMONS 29 The best thing to do to keep yourself safe from demonic harm is to pray consistently, receive the sacraments and remain in a state of grace. If you are in a state of mortal sin you are much more vulnerable to attacks from the demonic. If you do find yourself being bothered in a way that seems to be demonic do not panic.

Remember that they only have power over you that you grant them, God is by your side and He is infinitely more powerful, and the very fact that you are under attack shows that you are being a good servant of God to draw demonic attention to yourself to try and stop the good work you are doing.

In this case the best recourse is to continue doing your routine but add an extra prayer to St. Michael and your guardian angels to help you in your struggle with the demonic.

Make sure to bring it up in Spiritual counselling as the priest can do things like bless you, give you a sacramental to wear or just give you advice and help you in your fight. The demons are still angels and as such are higher beings than humans, and on our own we could never hope to defeat them.

However, we are not alone, and with God on our side and with knowledge both naturally known and revealed we can defend ourselves easily from the annoyances that the demons are.

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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Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

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

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

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One rarely hears sermons preached on the four last things; death, judgement, Heaven & Hell, and this has led to a decline in belief concerning these matters.

SCIENCE SAYS NO

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

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

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

Reflections on the Abortion Issue in Ireland.

Those of us here on earth can help to shorten the time that Holy Souls must spend in Purgatory. This book teaches us how best to help the Holy Souls in purgatory

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

Many countries, including Ireland, have removed the right to life from the Constitution and given the legislature the power to legalise abortion, which by definition is the intentional killing of the unborn child.

The assumption is that unborn babies have no human rights. The essays in this monograph expose the fallacy that unborn babies do not have the right to life and may be ‘terminated’ if that is the ‘choice’ of the mother. In the New Ireland, human killing is now legal. It is estimated that 800 – 900 unwanted unborn babies are ‘terminated’ every month. Abortion has become the murder machine of our time.”

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

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

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

The souls of most of those who die in a state of grace, will spend some time in Purgatory to be purified before they can enter the all holy realm of Heaven.

Book Title/s: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Credit/Debit Card Number: __________________________________________________ Expiry Date: _______________________________ C.V.V. ________________ Total Enclosed: €/£__________________________ Name: _________________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Post Code: __________________________________ Daytime Tel: ________________________________

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10th September 2021 Catholic Voice

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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.

Email: adminmass@latinmassireland.com

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Catholic Voice

10th September 2021

WWW.C19VAXREACTIONS.COM 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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