Catholic Voice 24th September 2021 Issue 326

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Issue 326

The Battle of Lepanto - October 7th 1571 - Paolo Veronese (1528 – 1588)

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2 CATHOLIC POLITICIANS?

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

Challenging Catholic Politicians on Abortion summer, we provoked an uproar by discussing whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist. We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didn’t belong.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone Prominent politicians lost no time in reacting hyperbolically to the Supreme Court’s decision refusing to enjoin Texas’s new law banning abortions after the detection of a foetal heartbeat.

President Biden announced a “whole-of-government effort” to find ways to overcome the Texas measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) denounced the Supreme Court’s refusal as a “cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health,” and promised new legal action: “This ban necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade” in federal law.

As a faith leader in the Catholic community, I find it especially disturbing that so many of the politicians on the wrong side of the preeminent human rights issue of our time are self-professed Catholics. This is a perennial challenge for bishops: This

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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

I see matters differently. When considering what duties Catholic bishops have with respect to prominent laymen in public life who openly oppose church teachings on abortion, I look to this country’s last great human rights movement — still within my living memory — for inspiration on how we should respond.

The example of New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel, who courageously confronted the evils of racism, is one that I especially admire. Rummel did not “stay in his lane.” Unlike several other bishops throughout this country’s history, he did not prioritize keeping parishioners and the public happy above advancing racial justice. Instead, he began a long, patient campaign of moral suasion to change the opinions of prosegregation White Catholics.

In 1948, he admitted two Black students to New Orleans’s Notre Dame Seminary. In 1951, he ordered the removal of “white” and “coloured” signs from Catholic churches in the archdiocese. In a 1953 pastoral letter, he ordered an end to segregation throughout the archdiocese of New Orleans, telling White Catholics that, because their “Coloured Catholic brethren share … the same spiritual life and destiny,” there could be “no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings.”

In 1955, Rummel closed a church for refusing to accept a Black priest. In a 1956 pastoral letter, he declared: “Racial segregation as such is morally wrong and sinful because it is a denial of the unity

and solidarity of the human race as conceived by God in the creation of Adam and Eve.” On March 27, 1962, Rummel formally announced the end of segregation in the New Orleans Catholic schools.

Many White Catholics were furious at this disruption of the longentrenched segregationist status quo. They staged protests and boycotts. Rummel patiently sent letters urging a conversion of heart, but he was also willing to threaten opponents of desegregation with excommunication.

On April 16, 1962, he followed through, excommunicating a former judge, a well-known writer and a segregationist community organiser. Two of the three later repented and died Catholics in good standing.

Was that wrong? Was that weaponising the Eucharist? No. Rummel recognised that prominent, high-profile public advocacy for racism was scandalous: It violated core Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice, and also led others to sin.

In our own time, what could be a more egregious “denial of the unity and solidarity of the human race” than abortion? Abortion kills a unique, irreplaceable human being growing in his or her mother’s womb. Everyone who advocates for abortion, in public or private life, who funds it or who presents it as a legitimate choice participates in a great moral evil.

Since the Roe decision, more than 60 million lives have been lost to abortion. Many millions more have

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24th September 2021 Catholic Voice CATHOLIC POLITICIANS? 3 been scarred by this experience, wounded victims whom society ignores.

“What? The Catholic Church condemns abortion?

When did that happen?”

Abortion is therefore the most pressing human rights challenge of our time. Can we pastors speak softly when the blood of 60 million innocent American children cries out for justice? When their mothers are condemned to silence, secretly suffering the injuries of the culture of “choice”?

Yes, we need to speak just as strongly for these mothers, and of our obligations to provide new and generous options for women facing crisis pregnancies.

And Texas gets this right: The state is investing $100 million to help mothers by funding pregnancy centres, adoption agencies and maternity homes and providing free services including counselling, parenting help, diapers, formula and job training to mothers who want to keep their babies.

You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings. The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child.

This is hardly inappropriate for a pastor to say. If anything, Catholic political leaders’ response to the situation in Texas highlights the need for us to say it all the louder.

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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 MOST HOLY ROSARY

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

October 7th - Our Lady Of Victory Feast Of The Most Holy Rosary Dom Prosper Gueranger It is customary with men of the world to balance their accounts at the end of the year, and ascertain their profits. The Church is now preparing to do the same.

We shall soon see her solemnly numbering her elect, taking an inventory of their holy relics, visiting the tombs of those who sleep in the Lord, and counting the sanctuaries, both old and new, that have been consecrated to her divine Spouse.

But today’s reckoning is a more solemn one, the profits more considerable: she opens her balance-sheet with the gain accruing to our Lady from the mysteries which compose the Cycle. Christmas, the Cross, the triumph of Jesus, these produce the holiness of us all; but before and above all, the holiness of Mary.

The diadem which the Church thus offers first to the august Sovereign of the world, is rightly composed of the triple crown of these sanctifying mysteries, the causes of her joy, of her sorrow, and of her glory.

The joyful mysteries recall the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, Mary’s Purification, and the Finding of our Lord in the Temple.

The sorrowful mysteries bring before us the Agony of our Blessed Lord, His being scourged, and crowned with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion.

While, in the glorious mysteries, we contemplate the Resurrection and Ascension of our Savior, Pentecost, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Mother of God.

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Such is Mary’s Rosary; a new and fruitful vine, which began to blossom at Gabriel’s salutation, and whose fragrant garlands form a link between earth and heaven.

In its present form, the Rosary was made known to the world by St. Dominic at the time of the struggles with the Albigensians, that social war of such ill-omen for the Church. The Rosary was then of more avail than armed forces against the power of Satan; it is now the Church’s last resource.

It would seem that, the ancient forms of social prayer being no longer relished by the people, the Holy Spirit has willed by this easy and ready summary of the Liturgy to maintain, in the isolated devotion of these unhappy times, the essential of that life of prayer, faith, and Christian virtue, which the public celebration of the Divine Office formerly kept up among the nations.

Before the thirteenth century, popular piety was already familiar with what was called the psalter of the laity, that is, the Angelical Salutation repeated one hundred and fifty times; it was the distribution of these Hail Marys into decades, each devoted to the consideration of a particular mystery, that constituted the Rosary. Such was the divine expedient, simple as the Eternal Wisdom that conceived it, and farreaching in its effects; for while it led wandering man to the Queen of mercy, it obviated ignorance which is the food of heresy, and taught him to find once more “the paths consecrated by the Blood of the Man-God, and by the tears of his Mother.”

Thus speaks the great Pontiff who, in the universal sorrow of these days, has again pointed out the means

24th September 2021

Catholic Voice

MOST HOLY ROSARY 5

of salvation more than once experienced by our fathers.

Pope Leo XIII., in his Encyclicals, has consecrated the present month to this devotion so dear to heaven; he has honoured our Lady in her Litanies with a new title, Queen of the most holy Rosary; and he has given the final development to the solemnity of this day, by raising it to the rank of a second class Feast, and by enriching it with a proper Office explaining its permanent object.

Besides all this, the Feast is a memorial of glorious victories, which do honour to the Christian name.

Soliman II., the greatest of the Sultans, taking advantage of the confusion caused in the West by Luther, had filled the sixteenth century with terror by his exploits. He left to his son, Selim II., the prospect of being able at length to carry out the ambition of his race: to subjugate Rome and Vienna, the Pope and the Emperor, to the power of the Crescent.

The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy, when, on the 7th October, 1571, it came into action, in the Gulf of Lepanto, with the pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice.

The Madonna of the Rosary - Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617 - 1682)

It was Sunday; throughout the world the confraternities of the Rosary were engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, St. Pius V. watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he had chosen, Don John of Austria, against the three hundred vessels of Islam.

The illustrious Pontiff, whose life’s work was now completed, did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph; but he perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of Our Lady of Victory.

His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to our Lady of the Rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new which possessed an altar under that invocation.

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A century and a half later, this limited concession A bequest from you in your Last Will and celebration in those churches ,was made general. As Innocent XI, in memory of the deliverance of Vienna Testament would help us to continue growing

by Sobieski, had extended the Feast of the most holy the publication of Catholic Voice and the Name of Mary to the whole Church; so, in 1716, dissemination of Catholic Truth Clement XI inscribed the Feast of the Rosary on the universal Calendar, in gratitude for the victory gained If you are in a position to leave a bequest,

by Prince Eugene at Peterwardein, on the 5th August, however large or small, you are assured that under the auspices of Our Lady of the Snow. it will be used to promote and strengthen This victory was followed by the raising of the siege of Corfu, and completed a year later by the taking of Belgrade.

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6 PASSION FOR TRUTH

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

Why Early Church Debates Were More Exciting Phil Lawler

When I was editor of an archdiocesan newspaper, my critics among the clergy sometimes complained that I devoted too much editorial attention to public affairs rather than internal church news. While I concentrated on the public struggle to protect life and family and marriage in an increasingly hostile environment, they said, I was missing the good news about the life of the Church and (as one auxiliary bishop memorably put it) “the exciting new developments in theology.” I disagreed — and soon I was no longer the editor of the archdiocesan newspaper.

“I hope that’s not heresy you’re preaching there!”

In one sense my critics were undoubtedly right. The sacramental life of the Church is far more important than the workaday stories I featured in the weekly headlines.

Every time the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated, every time a baby is baptised, every time a repentant sinner receives absolution — these events are infinitely more significant than social and political controversies.

However, I argued, they are not the proper material for a weekly newspaper. The transcendent importance of the sacraments should be explained in different forums.

Regarding theology, on the other hand, I saw very little merit in my critics’ argument. Frankly, I did not see “exciting new developments” in Catholic theology.

I realise that everything is exciting to those who are intimately involved. But I was editing a newspaper for lay readers, not professional theologians. And the latest discussions among Catholic theologians were not, as a rule, likely to appeal to that general audience.

There have been times, in the life of the Church, when theological debates would have made for lively newspaper headlines: times when prelates and scholars would hurl anathemas and sometimes throw punches. Now those were “exciting developments;” those were stories that I could sell to readers. But contemporary theological disputes are more measured, more abstract. The disagreements may be every bit as profound, but theologians today generally shy away from open verbal warfare.

More generally speaking, discourse within the Church these days is far more irenic than the robust debates of the early ecumenical councils. Bishops do their best to minimise their differences, at least for public appearances.

Only very rarely does one prominent Church leader say, in unmistakably clear language, that the thinks a colleague is dead wrong.

24th September 2021

PASSION FOR TRUTH 7

Catholic Voice

So it takes a certain degree of familiarity with the issues, and with the habits of clerical discourse, to understand the fundamental differences that lurk behind the diplomatic façades. As a matter of fact, since leaving that archdiocesan newspaper, I have spent years trying to help Catholic readers interpret statements by Church leaders, to read between the lines, to understand what is really at issue. Even now, with decades of experience to call upon, I don’t think I could keep a broad newspaper readership interested in “exciting new developments in theology” — unless I reduced them to the simple blunt terms that roiled debate within the early Church.

Are we better off today, now that internal Church debates are conducted in a more genteel fashion? I wonder. The vigour with which the early Church fathers defended their views, and attacked their opponents, showed that they cared very deeply about the truth. They would not compromise on essentials; they would not tolerate ambiguity. The laity may sometimes have been frightened by their ferocity, but they would not have been confused, and they would not have been apathetic. Some Christians stormed out of the Church after the Council of Chalcedon.

Today people drift out, by the tens of thousands, and still we hesitate to recognise a crisis of faith.

really were exciting. But the excitement was not confined to abstract debate. It showed, too, in their very direct, immediate approach to evangelisation. They did not expect potential converts to appreciate the subtleties of the faith (although they were capable of great subtlety and sophistication when speaking among themselves).

They hit new audiences broadside with a simple, stunning message — the same message that successful Christian evangelists have always emphasised — the astonishing news that mortal men can obtain eternal life.

And that’s the message, I submit, that Catholics (and nonCatholics, too) need to hear today. It is not, ordinarily, a message to be conveyed by a newspaper, because it is not a new development; the Good News is old news. But it is certainly appropriate material for any homily. As I said above, every celebration of the sacraments — and especially of the Mass — is a momentous event. We need constant reminders of why these events are so important, of the high stakes involved, of the incredible gifts we receive.

If we could ever arrive at a proper understanding of these mysteries — if we could even just mirror the enthusiasm of the early Church fathers — I have no doubt that Reading the works of the early Church fathers, one can theological developments would be more exciting, and readily recognise that their “developments in theology” diocesan newspaper editors more likely to cover them.

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8 THE EYES IN SCRIPTURE

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

Eyes In Holy Scripture

Canon J. Heppelle - Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest The eye is one of the most complex organs of the human body and sight is the noblest of the five senses.

In Sacred Scripture, the theme of eyes and eyesight expresses much more than the mere bodily organ.

It refers to as well: knowledge, the sentiments of the soul and also faith.

unrepentant sinners to their wicked passions.

In the first place, eyes are of course, the organ by which we see. “The Lord has given us eyes to see with” (Prov 20:12) Of course, Sacred Scripture is not ignorant of the usual human attributes associated with the eye such as beauty, honour etc. Solomon for example praises the beauty of the beloved’s eyes in Canticles 4:1.

As eyes are the organs by which we see the world around us, Sacred Scripture often uses “eyes” to express knowledge. Thus in the Fall of our First Parents, after eating the forbidden fruit “their eyes were opened” (Gen 3:7) for they had then experienced evil.

On the Spiritual level, Scripture attributes eyes to God. Not of course that God has physical eyes.

He is a Spirit. The Holy Ghost, however, has inspired human authors to speak of the eyes of God to express our Heavenly Father’s loving vigilance for our welfare.

The prophet Jeremiah for example, says that the Lord’s “eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam.” (Jer. 32:19) Contrarily, God turns His eyes away from those who stubbornly refuse the grace of God. “I will turn away my eyes from you” (Is 1:15) the prophet Isaiah says to express the abandonment of

If God looks towards us with loving eyes, so too we should look to Him. Thus the Psalmist prays: “As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters… so our eyes are on the Lord our God” (Ps 122:2).

“Before the eyes” and “in your eyes” are other expressions used to express knowledge and understanding. Man’s judgement is fallible, but God’s knowledge is perfect. Thus in the books of Judges and Kings, it is always a bad sign when someone starts “to do what is good in his eyes” rather than seeking to do what is good in God’s eyes.”

Eyes also show the sentiments of the soul. There is the proud eye (cf.

Ps 18:27, 101:5). The eye of pity: “Yet my eye spared them” says the Lord to Ezechiel (Ezech 20:17). or its opposite, the pitiless eyes: “Thy eye shall not spare them, neither shalt thou serve their gods, lest they be thy ruin.” the Lord said, when he commanded the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites.

There is also the eye of wrath, “the eye that mocks” (Prov 30:17), and the greedy eye which St. John refers to as the “concupiscence of the eyes.” (1 Jn 2:16) Spiritual understanding leads to faith. Our Lord compares belief to the eye: “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body will be lightsome: but

if it be evil, thy body also will be darksome.” (Lk 6:34) If we believe we are in the Light of God we can see, at least dimly or “in a mirror.” (I Cor 13:12) If we refuse to believe, then even the light we have will be taken away from us, as happened to the scribes and pharisees.

Our eyes, our spiritual vision can be clouded. Our Lord warns us against seeing only the spec in our neighbour’s eye and not the beam in our own eyes. Our Saviour gives us the good advice: “cast first the beam out of thy own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye” (Lk 6:42) Our Lord during his life of earth frequently gave sight to the blind, both physically and spiritually as He opened the eyes of the heart to believe in Him. One of the most interesting miracles is when our Lord healed the man born blind. St John tells us that Our Lord “spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and spread the clay upon his [the blind man’s] eyes, And said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe” (John 9:6-7) Not only does our Lord cure this man’s eyes, but he also opens the eyes of his soul to believe in Him, for shorty later the man return to our Lord to say: “I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him.” (Jn 9:38) This miracle is also interesting because our Lord chose to use outwards signs of mud and washing rather than simply commanding the cure. This foreshadows the manner in which our Lord grants the gift of Faith after the Ascension, to wit, through the sacraments which He has entrusted to His Church. Let us make good use of the sacraments, so that the eyes of our souls remain bright with the light of Faith until we see God face to face in Heaven.

24th September 2021

LETTERS 9

Catholic Voice

Letters The War Against The Weak Dear Editor, Recently, 26/7/21 the Irish Independent published an article by Gina Menzies, with the heading, “We’ve come a long way in 100 years but the road ahead still stretches far and wide” Addressing like-minded readers, she lists a number of so called significant strides taken in that span of years.

These include the embracing of secularism and pluralism, the removal of the special position of the Roman Catholic Church, the legalisation of contraception, divorce, and homosexuality. Sodomy was also legalised although Gina does not mention it, “and of course the eighth amendment”.

Along with the article there is a photograph. It pictures a crowd. A laughing, smiling, hands-in-the-air crowd. They are celebrating the fall of the eighth amendment. They have just won a battle in the global “war against the weak”. In particular, the war against the child unborn. With the eighth gone, state sponsored child killers, are now loosed to attack, terrify, and destroy infant girls and boys, resting, growing, and waiting in their mother’s womb.

And the crowd laughs, revealing a lot about them.

“But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.

I did not know it was against me they devised schemes,” (Jeremiah 11:19) However, “For we have not here a lasting city,” (Hebrews 13:14) In due course we shall all die, and that is not all. For when we die, believe it or not, “we must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each may receive good or evil for what he has done in the body.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) In that event those who plotted – approved – and who execute the war against children, should expect to be shown a lake filled with innocent blood and see their hand in it.

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

Gina wrote “the road ahead still stretches far and wide.”

Jesus said, the road to perdition is wide and spacious and many take it, but the road that leads to life is narrow and few take it. (Matthew 7:13-14) We have all been advised to repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1-14) Fr Anthony Scully Dublin

Ecological Sins?

Dear Editor, Christ said, ‘For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and lose his life [Mark 8:36]?’ In a recent interview, Bishop Martin Hayes of Kilmore was showing great concern for the environment, and he has taken a number of steps in his diocese to improve the environment. This seems to be his number one priority. He is silent on the moral environment.

With the huge loss of Faith in Ireland, with the genocide of babies, the denial of the sacraments, curtailing of the Sacrifice of the Mass, the destruction

of the family and marriage, very little teaching of the True Faith, the faithful are entitled to ask why the bishops are so concerned about the physical environment, and have so little concern for the spiritual and moral environment of their flock. Why do we hear so much about so-called ecological sins, and so little about the spiritual sins against God? The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Farrell, said Catholics must radiate joy to attract more people into the Church. This is the same Bishop who forbade Eucharistic Adoration, which is worship of the True God, and brings real joy. He then went, and paid homage to the false god of Islam. He then goes on to say the Faith in Ireland has vanished. No, it did not vanish, it was destroyed, by prelates who, instead of giving Christ’s teaching, and caring for their flock abandoned them and gave false guidance.

Mary Help of Christians pray for Ireland.

David Kelly Crumlin Dublin.

The image on the left is from the Kerry Diocesan website. The Irish bishops have launched the month long “Season of Creation” initiative which takes place from 1st September - 4th October 2021.

In Ireland, certain plants, animals and insects are protected by law under the Nature Directives (Birds and Habitat Directives), and the Wildlife Acts.

The unborn child is afforded no such protection yet our bishops have never held a month long programme in defence of the unborn who are created in the image and likeness of God. 13,243 unborn children that we know of have been murdered since 2019 and our bishops want to protect the planet!

10 THE WORD OF GOD

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

The Exorcistic Effect of the Word of God Msgr. Charles Pope

Many often think of exorcism only in relation to driving out demons from possessed people using ancient prayers. But, truth be told, we all have afflictions, oppressions, temptations and other negative thoughts and drives that are influenced by demons. Such influences may be direct and personal, but there are also sources of error and negativity that come from the world; and the world itself is often under the sway of the “prince of this world” (Satan) who spreads his lies and hate.

Among the Lord’s principal weapons in driving demons out is his Word, given to us in the Scriptures and Sacred Teachings of the Church. In the desert, Jesus rebuked every temptation by recourse to scripture. St. Michael is often depicted holding a sword against Satan. But this sword is not a physical sword of shiny steel, it is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).

One of the great purposes of the Lord’s Word is to drive back the demons in our lives associated with ignorance, despair, presumption, sinfulness, worldliness, and every other foolish and harmful thought or drive. In the sacred liturgy, the proclamation and preaching of the Word of God is not a mere conveying of information or the telling of ancient stories. The Word of God does not merely inform, it performs, and thereby transforms. In this way demons and their influence are driven back and there is built for us a bulwark of truth. If we faithfully attend Holy Mass and carefully listen to the proclaimed Word of God, it has an exorcistic quality. How much more so then when we also receive the Word Made Flesh, in Holy Communion!

Consider, as a demonstration, a passage describing Jesus in the Synagogue at Capernaum.

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they

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The Possessed Man in the Synagogue - James Tissot (1836 - 1902)

come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region. (Lk 4:31-37) Note that Jesus’ authoritative proclamation as he taught them in the synagogue provoked and summoned a demon who stood forth. The authority of Jesus’ words so troubled the demon that he was forced to manifest his presence and admit the truth about Jesus. He now stands before Jesus and is driven out by his mere word.

See the picture here! As noted above, proper and orthodox preaching does this. It is endowed by the Lord’s grace and the power of his word. It summons the opportunistic demons forth who exploit human weaknesses such as ignorance, error, fear, past trauma, despair, doubt, stubbornness, hatred and so forth. While these are human struggles, demons often “pile on” by seeking these doorways, much as bacteria exploit cuts or wounds in our skin. God’s Word, helps to heal us, and disempower demonic strongholds.

Of course Jesus does all this in less than a minute! But the gospels often present deliverance and healing as compressed in time. For most of us, this deliverance, this casting out of negativity and the demons associated is something that takes place over a longer period time, even decades.

Steadily attending to God’s Word through our presence at holy Mass, devotional reading, the Divine Office and other things, such as parish bible studies, goes to work over time and casts out many evil spirits that assail and tempt us with sinful and worldly thought.

And in this way, God’s holy Word has an exorcistic quality. Of this I am a witness. For almost forty years now, since my entrance into the seminary I have daily read, prayed and studied God’s Word. And it, along with the reception of the Sacraments, has changed me profoundly. Dark, despairing and sinful thoughts have been brought to light and been driven away, along with any demons associated with them. This work is ongoing, but the Lord has brought me a mighty long way.

How about you?

24th September 2021

CLERICAL ATTIRE 11

Catholic Voice

The Priest In Cassock Is A Living Sermon Brian Williams

For the past three years the good people of St. Joseph, Missouri have been treated to an unusual sight in this day and age: a priest in cassock walking their city streets. As recently reported by Our Sunday Visitor: Walk the streets of St. Joseph, Missouri, and you may have a memorable encounter with a tall young priest wearing a black cassock and Saturno clergy hat, a rosary in one hand and large crucifix in the other. The priest is Father Lawrence Carney, ordained for the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, who for the past three years has devoted much of his time to street evangelism: strolling down inner city streets, praying the Rosary and sharing the Gospel with those who approach him.

Father Carney says that the idea of donning the cassock and making himself a visible witness to the Gospel came to him while walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain several years back. Along the “Way” Fr. Carney opted to wear his cassock. He estimates that he spoke with over 1,000 fellow travellers during his 32 day pilgrimage.

The attraction of people to a priest in a cassock, both for Catholics as well as non-Catholics, is explained

by Fr. Carney this way: “There’s something mysterious about the cassock; it acts like a magnet, drawing people to you…It is a sacramental that has a special blessing that the suit does not have.”

One friend of Fr. Carney’s who has seen his evangelising first hand described it as follows:

“It was beautiful and amazing.

Young and old, rich and poor, and men and women would come up to him and immediately start talking to him about their problems. Teenage girls and young women were crying to him about things going on in their lives. It was like they thought he was God walking the earth.”

For those in the Church already blessed with a personal, experiential, knowledge of the truth and beauty of tradition, the efficacy of Fr. Carney’s efforts is not surprising.

Catholicism attracts. A priest in a cassock attracts.

It should also come as no surprise that Fr. Carney’s continued formation and sanctification has come through an embracing of tradition.

Currently “on loan” to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Fr. Carney serves as chaplain to the traditional order of nuns, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. If that name sounds familiar, it should. In recent years the sisters have released their beautiful recordings Advent at Ephesus and Lent at Ephesus; both have been bestsellers.

He visits the community daily to celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form, hears their confessions, and offers spiritual guidance.

Writing over thirty years ago from an aggressively secular, post-Christian, France the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre noted the visible witness given to the Catholic faithful by the priest in cassock: “The great boast of the new Church is dialogue. But how can this

begin if we hide from the eyes of our prospective dialogue partners?

In Communist countries the first act of the dictators is to forbid the cassock; this is part of a program to stamp out religion. And we must believe the reverse to be true too. The priest who declares his identity by his exterior appearance is a living sermon. The absence of recognisable priests in a large city is a serious step backward in the preaching of the Gospel…”

While many bishops and brother priests today view the cassock, the biretta, or the Saturno as being rigid, nostalgic, or prideful, nothing could be further from the truth. The faithful are drawn to this visual expression of the sacramental priesthood. When we see priests in cassocks, we see our faith. We see a Catholicism, bold and unafraid to share the Gospel truth.

Let us support, through our prayer and words of encouragement, those priests who wear the cassock. May God send us more of these faithful priests!

12 A CLEAN HEART

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

A Clean Heart Create In Me O God, And A Steadfast Spirit Renew Within Me John Lacken

(Psalm 50:12)

“A Clean Heart Create In Me O God, And A Steadfast Spirit Renew Within Me” These lines come from the great Psalm 50 - the ‘Miserére Mei, Deus’ - have mercy on me, O God . It was put to music by Gregori Allegri in the 1630s and the musical score was adapted by Mozart. It is a hauntingly beautiful melody which is traditionally sung on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. Psalm 50 is one of main Psalms chanted at the traditional Benedictine office of Lauds on ferial days.

Psalm 50 is attributed to King David professing his repentance after the visit of the Prophet Nathan. King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Urias, a soldier in the King’s army. Bathsheba was now pregnant which left King David with a predicament.

There was a war going on at the time and King David tried to get Urias to go home to his wife so that her pregnancy, caused by the King’s sinful actions, would be covered up and the child would be assumed to be that of Urias. However, Urias refused to return to his house while the war was on, saying to King David: “The ark of God and Israel and Juda dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord abide upon the face of the earth: and shall I go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to sleep with my wife? By thy welfare and by the welfare of thy soul I will not do this thing.” (2 Samuel 11:11) King David then arranges for Urias to get drunk, but still, Urias did not return home.

King David - Matthias Stom (1600 – 1652) - Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille

Thus thwarted in covering up his sinful behaviour, King David arranges for Urias to be sent out to the most dangerous area of the battlefield and Urias is killed by the enemy just as King David had planned.

With Urias now out of the way, King David takes Bathsheba to be his wife and she bore him a son and nobody was any the wiser to King David’s sin of adultery.

But God was displeased and he sent the prophet Nathan to King David.

It is a beautifully told story.

“And the Lord sent Nathan to David: and when he was come to him, he said to him: There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor.

The rich man had exceeding many sheep and oxen.

But the poor man had nothing at all but one little ewe lamb, which he

had bought and nourished up, and which had grown up in his house together with his children, eating of his bread, and drinking of his cup, and sleeping in his bosom: and it was unto him as a daughter.

And when a certain stranger was come to the rich man, he spared to take of his own sheep and oxen, to make a feast for that stranger, who was come to him, but took the poor man’s ewe, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

And David’s anger being exceedingly kindled against that man, he said to Nathan: As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this is a child of death.

He shall restore the ewe fourfold, because he did this thing, and had no pity.

And Nathan said to David: Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul,

24th September 2021 Catholic Voice And gave thee thy master’s house and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and Juda: and if these things be little, I shall add far greater things unto thee.

Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight? Thou hast killed Urias the Hethite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Urias the Hethite to be thy wife.

Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of the sun.

And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord.

And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die.

Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, the child that is born to thee, shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:1-14) This powerful story of God’s justice and of His mercy, should deeply resonate with us in the world we are living in today. We are living in what must be the most evil times ever witnessed in the history of mankind.

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

A CLEAN HEART 13

The Irish Murder of Innocents Act 2018

Early pregnancy 12. (1) A termination of pregnancy may be carried out in accordance with this section by a medical practitioner where, having examined the pregnant woman, he or she is of the reasonable opinion formed in good faith that the pregnancy concerned has not exceeded 12 weeks of pregnancy.

(2) A termination of pregnancy shall not be carried out under this section unless the medical practitioner referred to in subsection (1) has certified his or her opinion as to the matter referred to in that subsection.

(3) The termination of pregnancy shall not be carried out by a medical practitioner unless a period of not less than 3 days has elapsed from — (a) the date of certification under subsection (2) by that medical practitioner, or (b) where a certification was previously made in respect of the pregnancy by another medical practitioner for the purposes of subsection (2), the date of that previous certification.

(4) A termination of pregnancy to which the certification referred to in subsection (2) relates shall be carried out as soon as may be after the period referred to in subsection (3)(a) or (b), as the case may be, has elapsed but before the pregnancy has exceeded 12 weeks of pregnancy.

(5) For the purposes of this section, “12 weeks of pregnancy” shall be construed in accordance with the medical principle that pregnancy is generally dated from the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period.

The World Health Organisation tells us that there are forty to fifty million induced abortions performed every year. The Guttmacher Institute estimates the figure at about 73 million abortions per annum. One has to be careful with the statistics from both of these organisations as they both promote abortion and contraception and both are capable of either exaggerating or reducing the actual numbers depending on which agenda they are promoting.

In countries where abortion is illegal they will tend to exaggerate the number in order to put pressure on the legislators. In countries where abortion is legal, they may under report the number of abortions in order to further promote contraception and sexeducation programmes claiming that the artificially reduced numbers clearly show that the contraception and sex education are working.

Dr Bernard Nathanson who cofounded the ‘National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws’ (NARAL) explained how they would exaggerate the numbers of ‘unsafe’ abortions in order to bring about change in the laws. What we do know is that the number of abortions worldwide is probably between 40 and 73 million.

The story of King David teaches us the lengths that men are willing

to go in order to hide their sins.

Abortion is one of the ways that modern man seeks to hide his sexual sins. Contraception is another.

These abortions are justified by the passing of legislation which permits women to murder their unborn offspring whilst pretending that there is nothing wrong with this practice.

If we look at the abortion figures in Ireland as reported by the Department of Health, there were 6,666 abortions reported for 2019 and 6,577 abortions reported for the year 2020.

It is quite chilling and sickening to read the “Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (see extract above). This is an act, the sole purpose of which is to facilitate the murder of innocent human beings by doctors and mothers, at the cost of the taxpayer.

Our present day governments, like King David of old, seek to hide their evil actions. They do this using various tactics which call that which is evil, good; and which call that which is good, evil. They murder innocent human beings and call that a Health Act! We see this in the debacle over the children’s hospital in Dublin.

A small group of elderly nuns are presented as being a serious threat

14 A CLEAN HEART to the health and well-being of children. However, the truth of the matter is, that the only reason there are objections to the connection between the proposed hospital and the religious order, is that the government wants to permit the murder of certain children in the hospital and the elderly nuns are opposed to this murder.

The government also lies to the public when matters of human sexuality are being addressed because our government must comply with a global tyranny if they are to retain access to certain international funding options.

The government must enact public policies in favour of abortion and homosexual marriage as part of the requirements of the globalists.

One of the main motivations of the abortion industry is money.

The abortion industry leads to dead bodies, and, in the pursuit of financial gain, the bodies of aborted babies are sold for profit to pharmaceutical and other research organisations, including university colleges.

David Daleiden exposed the illegal trading in human body parts that the abortion and pharmaceutical research companies are engaged in.

Rather than charging those engaged in the illegal sale of human organs and closing down the trade, it was David Daleiden who was found guilty of criminal activity by a court.

Mr Daleiden’s videos revealed a pricing structure for aborted baby’s organs. For example, for $350 you can purchase the intact liver of an aborted baby. For $750 you can buy the intact brain of an aborted baby.

These baby’s organs are then used for medical and other research purposes. The pharmaceutical industry seeks to develop foetal cell-lines from the baby’s organs and these are then used in various ways in the manufacture and

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

In a statement to news media today, the University of Pittsburgh admitted that “ischemia time” in its NIH grant application for the GUDMAP aborted fetal kidney harvesting program “refers to the time after the tissue collection procedure”.

“Ischemia time, he said “refers to the time after the tissue collection procedure” Ischemia starts when the organ (the kidneys primarily in Pitt’s GUDMAP project) is cut off from blood circulation.

The NIH defines ischemia as “lack of blood supply to a part of the body.” The University states the fetal organs do not undergo ischemia — lose their blood supply — until “after the tissue collection procedure”. This means the organs are still receiving blood supply from the fetal heartbeat during the “tissue collection”.

Report from the Centre for Medical Progress - Founded by David Daleiden

production of medicines such as the covid-19 vaccines. All of the covid-19 vaccines available in Ireland used foetal cell-lines from aborted baby’s in their production and development.

When one looks at the utter horror of abortion and at the horror of dissecting babies, sometimes whilst these babies are still alive, one is forced to ask the question, ‘how is it that these barbaric practices are permitted in what are called civilised societies?’

The answer is, that many of the members of the Catholic hierarchy are failing to carry out the mission entrusted to them by Jesus Christ.

When we speak of the Catholic Church, we must be very careful to distinguish between the Catholic Church as the bride of Christ - a spiritual and visible entity, founded

by Jesus Christ and entrusted with the Deposit of the Catholic Faith.

The Catholic Church in this sense is perfect - beautiful - indefectible and cannot err in matters of faith and morals.

This is not what is understood by many of the critics of the Catholic Church who do not regard the Catholic Church as having a divine

origin. What these critics object to are the bad actions of Catholics which bring the Catholic Church into disrepute.

Many baptised Catholics also fail to make this distinction between the hierarchical Catholic Church which is composed of ordained men of varying degrees of holiness, some of whom promote heresy and false teaching, and the Divine institution.

It is the Hierarchical element of the Catholic Church that is failing spectacularly in our time in the mission entrusted to it by God. God has provided the Catholic Church with all that is necessary to convert the world to Christ, but for that to happen, the Catholic hierarchy must promote the teachings of the Catholic Church in their fullness and without compromise.

As we have documented many times in this paper, there are bishops in Ireland and around the world, who remain silent whilst homosexuality is being promoted in their dioceses, even by organisations established

by Catholic bishops.

Our bishops largely remain silent when it comes to contraception and the abortion pills that are being sold

by Catholic pharmacists.

A CLEAN HEART 15

24th September 2021 Catholic Voice Catholic politicians in Ireland who voted to allow innocent human beings to be murdered in their mother’s wombs, are never denied Holy Communion by their bishops and on many occasions, public scandal is caused when politicians who voted for abortion, are televised whilst receiving Holy Communion.

challenge those who promote evil in our society. They don’t want to be seen to rock the boat.

What we can clearly see in our modern societies, where abortion, divorce, homosexual practices, contraception, and other grave evils are promoted, is that the hierarchical element of the Catholic Church is failing in its duty to teach men the truths of the Catholic Faith.

One of the differences between King David and our modern politicians is that King David repented of his sins. As he says in Psalm 50:

This however does not excuse any of us from being culpable. Many Catholics live their lives believing that the bare minimum is all that is required of them by the Catholic Church. They go to Holy Mass on Sunday, they go to confession at least once per year, but they do not

Against Thee, Thee only, Have I sinned And have done this evil in Thy sight, That Thou mightest be justified When Thou speakest, And be clear when Thou judgest.”

This creates an added burden for those of us who can see the coming collapse of our societies and who are striving to live our lives according to Catholic Church teaching and to promote those teachings in society.

“For I acknowledge My transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.

(Psalm 50:3-4)

In all of this we can take great comfort in the story of King David.

God forgave his sins because he sincerely repented of them. King David, for his part, also accepted the just punishment given by God which resulted in the death of his newborn infant.

Like King David, we too can pray that God will create a clean heart in us and make us steadfast in spirit so that we can help others to come to the full knowledge of the Catholic Faith.

We can pray for our bishops to be given this gift too so that they will once again become steadfast in promoting and teaching the Catholic faith and so that they will reclaim their right and duty to proclaim Catholic teaching, especially in our Catholic schools.

Let us never give up hope, especially when, like the apostles in the boat, all seems lost. At these times let us call most ardently on the Lord.

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16 HEAVENLY ANGELS

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

The Saints & Their Eucharistic Encounters With Angels Odile Haumonte

It was the end of September, during the feast of the Holy Archangels.

St. Angela tells us: While I was in the church in Foligno and desired to communicate, I prayed to the Holy Angels, and especially to St. Michael and the Angels of the Seraphim, and said: “O ministering Angels, who have the power and the office from God to administer Him to others, by expressing His knowledge and love, I beseech you to present Him unto me, such as the Father of Mercies gave Him unto men, and as He willeth and hath willed to be received and worshipped by us; that is to say, poor, and sorrowing, and despised, and wounded, and bleeding, and crucified, and dead upon the cross.”

Then said the Angels unto me with unutterable pleasantness and sweetness: “O thou who art pleasing unto God, behold, He is ministered unto thee, and thou hast Him present; and over and above it hath been granted thee, that thou mayest present Him and administer Him to others.”

Then in truth I beheld Him present, and I saw Him very clearly with the eyes of my soul, in the Sacrament, even as I had asked for Him, namely, dolorous, and bleeding, and crucified, and after-wards dead upon the cross. Then, too, I felt so exceeding sharp a pain, that it seemed unto me that my heart would burst by reason of the presence of so dolorous a vision; and on the other hand, I took delight and joy in the presence of the Angels, and never would have thought, unless I had seen it, that the Angels were so pleasing, and that they could give such joy unto the soul.

The Book of the Visions and Instructions of Blessed Angela of Foligno, trans. Rev. A. P. J. Cruikshank, 2nd ed. (London: Art and Book, 1888), chap. 38, pp.

137–138.

“I Am Going to Love” Before going to Mass each morning, St. Germaine of Pibrac stuck her staff in the ground in the middle of her flock. An angel came to watch over the flock in her place. Despite the wolves that were howling around them, she never lost a single animal.

Likewise, when St. Isidore went to Mass in the early morning while his work companions went to the fields, two angels who looked like sturdy youths plowed and cultivated in Isidore’s place until he returned.

Benoîte Rencurel, a shepherdess from Laus, saw angels flying in the air above the tabernacle and around the altar during Mass. “They were laughing as if they were perfectly happy to see the faithful gathered together in prayer.” St. John

Chrysostom said: “The whole sanctuary and the space around the altar are filled with heavenly powers to honour the One who is present on the altar.” He explained that, when Mass started, legions of angels surrounded the altar “in an attitude that is comparable to war¬riors in the presence of their king.”

St. Brigid thought that the cherubim made “the air vibrate with unspeakable sounds and songs” during the Consecration.

Agnes of Langeac, a Dominican nun, never said: “I am going to Mass” but “I am going to love!” One day, her spiritual father prohibited her from going to Communion because of her exces¬sive desire for it. At the end of Mass, he realized that one of the remaining hosts was missing. Then Agnes admitted to him that her angel had come to take a host from the ciborium to give her.

Therese Neumann could not absorb any food. For thirty-five years, she

24th September 2021

Catholic Voice

lived only on daily Communion.

Therese constantly saw her angel, who stood to her right and revealed to her secrets about her visitors.

She knew if it had been a long time since people who came to see her had received Communion.

She could also tell whether a host that someone presented her was consecrated.

Sometimes angels offer Communion. The angel who appeared to the three children in Fatima gave them Communion.

Lucia received the Body of Christ, while Francisco and Jacinta con¬sumed the Blood of Christ.

The angel said to them: “Receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and console your God!” Likewise, Benoîte Rencurel received Communion from her angel one day when there was no priest. He said to her: “I will give you Communion. Light the candles, approach the altar, take the cloth, and kneel.” Then he ordered her to go into her room “to pray and thank God.” So Great and So Humble Are we aware of what we are doing when we receive Jesus in Communion? Sometimes the casual or distracted attitude of some of the faithful can encourage us to think: “Only those who want to receive Jesus, who is really present in this bread, should come forward!” But are we ourselves really present to the presence of the one who gives Himself to us? Let us be fully attentive to what happens in this beautiful moment of the celebration of the Mass. I have sometimes heard people respond with a “thank you” when receiving the host, but the liturgical dialogue is so beautiful: “The Body of Christ,” your Lord and God, your Beloved who gave His life to save you.

“Amen,” I believe it. I support this with all my soul. I want it more than anything!

This reminds me of these words from the holy Curé of Ars: “If a

single Mass were celebrated in the world, multitudes would rush to it by the millions.”

This Eucharistic mystery is so humble that we run the risk of trivializing it as Sundays go by.

Yet let us not judge according to appearances, for only God sees our hearts. Who knows if the young person we glare at because he is chewing gum is not car¬rying a heavy burden that he has just laid down as he received Communion?

Fortunately, the Bread of Life is also the Bread for the poor. Let us not wait to be saints to receive Communion, for Communion sanctifies us! It nourishes in us spiritual forces through which we become more devoted and attentive to others. The Curé of Ars believed that each person who comes to receive Communion is escorted by his guardian angel. Our guardian angels, more than anyone else, can help us to be more enthusiastic and vigilant.

Lord, You are the Bread of Life.

You give Your very self to me.

I receive what I am — the Body of Christ — so that I may become what I receive: the Body of Christ.

Based on a sermon by St. Augustine, Youcat: Youth Prayer Book (Ignatius Press, 2013).

St. Philip Neri was in ecstasy at each Eucharist, sometimes even from the time he put on his priestly vestments. “His eyes, which were fixed on Heaven, no longer saw what surrounded him.” When he received Communion, his heart throbbed and tears flowed down his face.

HEAVENLY ANGELS 17 When Padre Pio celebrated Mass, it sometimes took him fifteen minutes to say the words of Consecration because they led him to become so contemplative. Likewise, when he elevated the host in front of the faithful, he kept his eyes fixed on Jesus for several minutes. Fr. Derobert thought that people did not “attend” Padre Pio’s Mass; they “participated in” it. Another priest testified: “The Eucharist was the center of attraction toward which all the moments of Padre Pio’s day converged. Each hour of the day was an uninterrupted preparation and a continuous thanksgiving to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Some priests asked him: “Are we the only ones who stand around the altar during Mass?”

Padre Pio said that God’s angels were around the altar.

“Father, who is found around the altar?”

“The whole celestial court.”

Panis Angelicus The Bread of angels Becomes the Bread of men.

The Heavenly Bread puts An end to symbols.

O admirable thing!

The poor man, the servant, The little one Nourishes himself with His Lord.

Holy Trinity, One God, we ask You, Deign by Your visit To respond to our tribute.

Lead us through our paths To the goal that we are aiming for.

To the light where You dwell.

Amen.”

— Saint Thomas Aquinas

“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 ISLAMIC TERROR

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

Why Have Islamists Become The World’s Chief Terrorists?

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

Now that a terrorist group with a mediaeval world-view and a long and disfiguring record of atrocities has become by force the “government” of Afghanistan, the question yet again arises: why are nearly all terrorist murders these days perpetrated in the name of Islam?

One reason, alas, is the Qur’an itself.

Some years ago, the Governors of Harrow School contacted me to say that they had been publicly pestered for many months by a Muslim front group calling itself the “Harrow Council for Racial Equality”. This outfit, lavishly funded by the local authority, were not terrorists, but they were a public nuisance.

A Member of the Taliban Religious Police Beating a Woman in Kabul - (RAWA CC3)

They had attracted attention from totalitarian news media such as the unspeakable BBC, where they had peddled the fatuous and inaccurate message that for more than a century my alma mater had discriminated against Muslims and, for good measure, against Catholics and Jews.

longer than St John’s Gospel, and very nearly all the references would meet more objective criteria than those of the Scottish “Government” in its latest silly Bill proposing to ban as hate speech anything that the whingeing totalitarians in charge of that nation’s collapsing, heavily English-subsidised economy disagree with politically.

The more the Governors put out statements pointing out how many Muslims, Catholics and Jews had been and were happily at Harrow, the more the front group renewed its nonsensical accusations, dutifully parroted by the totalitarian Press.

On receiving the Governors’ request, I conducted an electronic search of the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, at the University of Michigan with the aim of finding all words such as “unbelief” or “unbeliever” throughout the English text. Page after page of references appeared. There were more than 1000, in a book not much

So I drafted a letter for the Governors to send to the front group, attaching the list of references.

The letter drew the front group’s attention to the fact that the Qur’an, on the evidence of its own text, on just about every page, preached undying and extreme hatred against all who were regarded as “infidels”.

Therefore, the Governors invited the front group to state as a matter of urgency what steps it proposed to take to have that book of hate removed entirely from the Borough of Harrow and all its libraries, and to reprint it either after removing

altogether these unacceptable references to those who did not share the Muslim belief or to print them in red, with a warning that if any of these references were read out loud prosecution for hate speech would follow.

No reply was received, but the School never heard from the “Harrow Council for Racial Equality” again. The front group fell shamefacedly silent. For the truth is that the Qur’an gives full voice to the ruthless viciousness with which Muhammad and his early followers treated all who did not wish to share their faith.

That is not to say that every Muslim is a terrorist. Very, very far from it.

The West owes a very great deal to the great scholars during the apotheosis of Islamic learning from the 9th to the 11th centuries.

Among their many distinguished contributions to learning, they preserved in the library at Cordoba

24th September 2021

Catholic Voice

a goodly proportion of the Classical texts that I studied at Harrow and Cambridge. Without those manuscripts, most of Classical literature would have been lost to us.

However, one does wish that nonextremist mosques and preachers would be more vocal than they seem to be in opposition to Islamist terrorism.

How the Qur’an describes the infidel The infidel: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, say: ‘O infidel, I do not serve that which you serve, nor do you serve Him Whom I serve, nor am I going to serve that which you serve, nor are you going to serve Him Whom I serve: you shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.’”

(109,1-6).

The infidel are “deserving of wrath upon wrath (2.90); are “the unjust” (2.254); are “the wicked” (80.42); are “deaf, dumb, blind and stupid” (2.171); “shall have no helpers (3.56; 3.91; 48.22); “shall have no protector” (47.11); “their guardians are Satans” (2.257; 7.27); “shall have a drink of boiling water because they disbelieved” (6.70; 10.4); “are the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight” (8.55); “will often wish they had been Muslims” (15.2); are “liars” (16.39, 16.105; 29.12; 59.11; 85.19; 6.110); are “losers” (29.52; 35.39; 39.63; 47.3); are “blind” (6.110).

Allah “puts his curse upon the infidel” (2.89; 33.64; 16.106); “is the enemy of the infidel” (2.98); Allah “does not guide the infidel” (2.264; 9.37, 9.80); “does not love the infidel” (3.32; 30.45); “deprives the infidel of blessings” (3.141); will not give the infidel “any portion in the next world” (3.176); “will gather together the hypocrites

and the infidel all in hell” (4.140, 9.68); “is displeased with those who befriend the infidel” (5.80); “lays uncleanness on the infidel” (6.125); “has prohibited his gifts to the infidel” (7.50); “will cut off the infidel by the roots” (8.7); “weakens the struggle of the infidel (8.18); “destroyed the infidel” (8.52); “will bring disgrace to the infidel” (9.2); “has cursed the infidel and they shall have lasting punishment” (9.68); is with those who fight their neighbours who are infidel (9.123); “has promised the fire to the infidel” (22.72; 48.13); will “shackle the infidel” (34.33); will “render the words of the infidel ineffective” (47.1) and “their deeds ineffective” (33.19; 47.2; 47.8); will “bring down destruction” upon the infidel (47.10).

Hell “encompasses the infidel” (9.49; 29,54); “the abode of the infidel is hell, and evil is their destination” (9.73; 29,68; 39.32; 57.19; 66.9); hell has been made “a prison for the infidel” (17.8); hell will be “exposed to view before the infidel” on the resurrection day (18.100); hell has been prepared “for the entertainment of the infidel (18.102); who will “be vanquished and driven together to hell, and evil is the resting-place (3.12,

ISLAMIC TERROR 19 8.36); “and as for the infidel, for them is the fire of hell; it shall not be finished with them entirely so that they should die, nor shall the chastisement thereof be lightened to them: even thus do We retribute every ungrateful one” (35.34); the infidel “shall be driven to hell in companies” (39.71); hell “is the punishment of the infidel” (67.6).

Christian infidels: “Certainly they are infidels who say: Surely Allah, He is the Messiah, son of Marium; and the Messiah said: O Children of Israel! serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah, then Allah has forbidden to him the garden, and his abode is the fire; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust” (5.72); Christ was not actually crucified (4.157); Christ was only an apostle for Allah (4.171; 5.75; 61.6); the Trinity is denied (4.171); Christ is not God (5.17; 5.72; 9.31); the Holy Spirit is not God (5.73); there is no distinction between Christ and the prophets of the Bible (2.36); Christ is like Adam, not Allah (3.57); “There is no god but the one God, and if they desist not from what they say, a painful chastisement shall befall those among them who are infidels” (5.73).

20 KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT SUNDAY? Mary Kearns

The sense of disorder in society that many comment on is easily understood when we remember that it was never meant to be like this. While the liturgical year of the Church maintains a steady rhythm and gives meaning to every season, everyone is not fully aware of this. It would however be hard to find someone who fails to recognise Sunday as a day different from all others. Even for secular reasons, Sunday is supposed to be distinguished as a day of rest - a day when the toil and turmoil of the six weekdays are set aside and time is given to family and gentle activities that restore spiritual well-being.

Of course for Christians Sunday is much more than this.

Sunday is the day when Catholics acknowledge the Creator in a way that is formal and specifically laid down by the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labour.” The obligation is binding every Sunday. It is a holy day of obligation, a day for us to grow in faith, and apart from illness or other extenuating circumstances, we are commanded to attend.

because it opens up the possibility of everlasting life.

Catholics attend Mass on Sundays and although unfortunately in recent times for many this has meant the internet, we have been encouraged to do our best to honour the Sabbath day in different ways.

The command to acknowledge our Creator has its origins in the Ten Commandments - the laws and moral code handed down by God. In the Third Commandment believers are instructed to “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.” For the Jews, the Sabbath was Saturday; Christians, however, transferred the Sabbath to Sunday, which was the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. The Church says that you have an obligation to fulfil the Third Commandment by refraining from unnecessary work on Sunday and by participating in Mass, for Catholics, the chief form of worship.

Every Mass is of the utmost significance but when it comes to understanding Mass on Sunday, something else is added. Each Sunday Mass is a “little Easter” because it marks the Resurrection – the victory of Jesus Christ over death. This victory is the most significant one in world history

Private worship is not enough.

Some will say they find more spiritual meaning in nature and they feel closer to God at the sea or in the mountains. This opinion is purely subjective and takes no account of the supernatural grace that God pours into our souls through the sacraments and above all the Mass.

It is not a matter of how we feel because it is part of God’s plan of salvation that we would be able to meet Him directly and receive His grace through the sacraments. At Mass, eternity and time intersect.

Let us hear from those who have had a lifetime of honouring the Mass and have written extensively about the Holy Sacrifice.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI “At the celebration of the Eucharist, we find ourselves in the ‘hour’ of Jesus and this ‘hour’ of Jesus becomes our own hour; His presence in our midst... By making the bread into His Body and the wine into His Blood, He anticipates His death, He accepts it in His heart, and He transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence — the crucifixion — from within becomes an act of total self-giving love... In their hearts, people always and everywhere have somehow expected a change, a transformation of the world. Here now is the central act of transformation that alone can

24th September 2021 truly renew the world... Jesus can distribute His Body, because He truly gives Himself... The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. We are to become the Body of Christ, His own Flesh and Blood. We all eat the one bread, and this means that we ourselves become one.”

Pope Saint John Paul II In his first Holy Thursday letter to priests, Pope John Paul II touchingly recalled situations of the faith triumphing over persecution from his own personal experience of living under religious oppression.

He described how the people tried to fulfil the Sunday obligation often when there was no priest to celebrate Mass.

“Sometimes it happens that the lay faithful meet in an abandoned shrine, and place on the altar a stole which they keep, and recite all the prayers of the Eucharistic liturgy: and then, at the moment that corresponds to the transubstantiation a deep silence comes down upon them, a silence sometimes broken by a sob … so ardently do they desire to hear the words that only the lips of a priest can efficaciously utter.”

Saint Teresa Of Calcutta Saint Teresa of Calcutta often spoke about how precious each Mass is. Frequently she would instruct newly ordained priests to “celebrate each Mass as if it is your first Mass, your last Mass and your only Mass.”

In other words, she implored priests never to take the celebration of the Mass for granted and let it become routine. We should anticipate and take part in every Mass as if it were our last or our only Mass.

Pope Francis, in his weekly catechesis responded to the question of why it is so important to go to Mass on Sundays and why it is not enough just to live a moral life, being a generally “good person” who respects others.

Catholic Voice

KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY 21

“Sunday Mass is not simply an obligation, said His Holiness. “We Christians need to take part in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his presence alive in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment and, in this way, be his credible witnesses.”

This brings up the point that we as Catholics should be familiar with.

Attendance at Mass is the first precept of the Church and there are five in total.

The second precept of the Church is “You shall confess your sins at least once a year.” Strictly speaking, we only need to take part in the Sacrament of Confession if we have committed a mortal sin, but the Church urges us to make frequent use of the sacrament and, at a minimum, to receive it once each year in preparation for fulfilling our Easter Duty.

The third precept of the Church is “You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.” Today, most Catholics receive the Eucharist at every Mass they attend, but it wasn’t always so. Since the Sacrament

of Holy Communion binds us to Christ and to our fellow Christians, the Church requires us to receive it at least once each year, sometime between Palm Sunday and Trinity Sunday (the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday).

The fourth precept of the Church is “You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.” Fasting and abstinence, along with prayer and alms-giving, are powerful tools in developing our spiritual life. Today, the Church requires Catholics to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and to abstain from meat on the Fridays during Lent.

On all other Fridays of the year, we may perform some other penance in place of abstinence.

The fifth precept of the Church is “You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.” The Catechism notes that this “means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.”

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

“We all eat the one bread, And this means That we ourselves become one.”

Photo Credit Cavasindavide1995 - CC4

22 GO TO CONFESSION

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

WILL IT COME BACK TO HAUNT US OR BLESS US? Fr Richard Heilman “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Luke 6:38).

Let that sink in.

By the grace of God, I have become friends with a bunch of exorcists.

My favourite thing is sitting around chatting with my exorcist friends while I pick their brain and listen intently to every word from their mouths. I’ve observed a phenomenon. Exorcists are granted by us some of the highest credibility of anyone in the faith world. I believe this is because we all know they must have the highest level of belief in supernatural realities.

One of the most fascinating teachings we receive from exorcists is the whole idea of “portals.”

Turns out, we have a choice. We can open up portals to demons and torment, or we can open up portals to the river of grace and blessing. In other words, “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Luke 6:38).

In general terms, our sins invite demons to move into our lives and our homes, while our acts of selfless charity open us up to blessing in our lives and in our homes. Why? Because God is a perfect Dad. Good dads will lead their children to strive to be the best version of themselves they can be. Their primary teaching tool is the use of “consequences” – good or bad – to our life choices. It is no different with God. The whole story of the Prodigal Son is meant to illustrate this.

Out, away from home, indulging all of his sinful lusts, the Prodigal Son finds himself in the middle of an economic depression and, ultimately, in the mud with pigs where he couldn’t even feed from the “pig leftovers.” He opened a portal to the tormenting demons,

and all the “negative stuff” came pouring in. It is then that he “comes to his senses” and realises “being home” with his father, following the house rules, is the “place of peace and blessing.”

At some point, we all must come to our senses and realise that God wants peace and blessing to flow in our lives. But, that will not come to those who choose to be that proverbial “spoiled brat” who believes we are just “entitled” to blessing, while we continue to opening up portals to demons.

What are some of the more common “portals to demons” these days, even among religious folks? Here’s what I see as today’s top five …

Pride must get first mention. This comes in a multitude of forms, but prevalent today seems to be an arrogance that seeks to set one as superior to others. This can range from the leftist progressives who have “evolved” beyond most people to the snobby elitists who constantly remind everyone of their special knowledge of how we should worship.

Lust gets second mention because Satan has been using this VERY effectively these days. Starting with easy access pornography, men, in particular, literally become addicted to the habit of viewing porn and masturbating. Homes and marriages are tormented by the many demons released into them by these many open portals.

Detraction and calumny rank very high. A person’s reputation is precious. There ability to positively influence others depends on it.

Attacking and destroying a person’s reputation is severely grave as it, in essence, kills off the person’s ability to impact the world. As such, calumny and detraction opens portals to some of the worst demons in people’s lives. This is why Jesus stresses the need to love our enemies. Don’t publicly destroy a person’s precious reputation, or really bad consequences will come. Doug and I actually have a policy on our podcast to not “name names.” We warn, in general terms, about present-day evils, and those engaging in those evils can decide if this applies to them or not.

24th September 2021 Worldly selfishness is rampant, so it too ranks high. Listen, God wants us to enjoy our creature comforts.

He delights that we delight in them.

The problem comes when they rank higher than God and His will.

When we just don’t seem to “have time” for God because of this, that or the other – usually noble – reason for “getting around to God” when we can. Addiction to our creature comforts can also blind us to the needs of those around us, and the dire need for passionate people of faith to fervently work at building the Kingdom of God in every way our time, talent and treasure positions us to do so. The demons this portal is opened to are the ones who start removing blessings from our lives. We must be generous, while we learn the supernatural reality that “we can never out-give God.” Faith seen as an electric blanket makes the top five. Flannery

Catholic Voice O’Connor once said, “What people don’t realise is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.” When we “use” faith for its “feel good” effect, or to build our “personal brand,” while we remain removed from our parish family’s, in particular, “joint efforts” (demanding our sacrifice) to build each other up and to build the world up, it opens the portal to those demons that will work to leave us in a void of emptiness and meaningless and depression. Why? Because the portal to grace and blessing comes when we selflessly live outside ourselves, joining with the Children of Light to be a mighty force to push out the darkness in our world. Now we are living out our raison d’être; our reason for existence.

How do we close off the portals to demons and open up the portal to the river of grace in our lives? Exorcists

GO TO CONFESSION 23 are unanimous in their teaching that there is no more powerful exorcism than the Sacrament of Confession.

We must be aware, though, that our Confessions must contain our “contrition.” In other words, we must confess while believing we are actually “done” with that sin(s).

It is questionable whether the Sacrament has its proper effect if we are confessing while submitting to the belief that the sin still “owns us” … that we will likely commit it again. No, we simply must have the great RESOLVE to be DONE. Then, the demon portals will close and the river of grace will flow back into our lives.

Then He will restore our soul and lead us to the restful waters of His Divine Presence and His loving protection. Don’t we all want that peace which passes all understanding?

24 THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

The Eucharist Meets Your Every Need St. Peter Julian Eymard “Thou gavest them bread from Heaven, having in it the sweetness of every taste.” (Wisdom 16:20) The manna that God sent down every morning into the camp of the Israelites had all sorts of flavours and virtues; it not only restored failing energies and gave vigour of body, but it was a bread of sweetness. The Holy Eucharist, which it prefigures, possesses likewise every virtue. It is a remedy for our spiritual infirmities, strength for our daily weaknesses, and a source of peace, joy, and happiness.

The Eucharist, according to the Council of Trent, is a divine antidote that delivers us from common faults and preserves us from mortal sin. It is a fire that, in an instant, consumes the chaff of our spiritual imperfections.

Holy Communion is the war that God wages in us against our concupiscence and against the Devil, whom our evil pas¬sions constantly invite and who, through his connivance with our unruly appetites, holds some part of us in thrall. Did not Jesus say, “Come to me, all you who labor beneath the burden of slavery of your past sins, and I will refresh and deliver you”?

Holy Penance cleanses us from sin, yet, purified though we be, we are left with the marks of our chains, the tendency to fall again. The enemy, although driven out, still keeps his agents within the walls.

So Jesus comes to us to destroy the vestiges of our sins, to counteract our evil tendencies, and to prevent the Devil from re-establishing his power over us.

Holy Communion is more than a remedy; it is a force that gives us powerful assistance in attaining goodness, virtue, and holiness.

Certainly it is not easy to acquire a Christian virtue. It means investing ourselves with a quality of Jesus; it is a divine education, a conformation of our ways to those of Jesus.

Now, in Holy Communion, Jesus Himself forms His likeness within us. He becomes our own Teacher.

By the inspirations of His love, He awakens the gratitude we owe Him as our Benefactor, the desire to resemble Him, a foretaste of the happiness that lies in imitating Him and drawing our life from His. How attractive the learning of virtue becomes through Communion!

How easy is humility when we have seen the God of glory humble

Himself so far as to come to a heart so poor, a mind so ignorant, a body so miserable! How easy is kind¬ness when we are moved by the loving-kindness of Jesus in giv¬ing Himself to us in the goodness of His Heart!

How beautiful in our sight is our dear neighbour when we see him seated at the same divine banquet, fed with the same Bread of Life, loved so generously by Jesus Christ!

How sweet do penance, selfmortification, and sacrifice become when we have received the crucified Jesus! And with what urgency we feel the need of embracing the life of Him who saved us, of Him who gave us the Holy Eucharist!

The Christian is formed much more quickly in the Cenacle than in any other school. The fact is, all the graces act at once in Communion; beneath the powerful influence of this divine Sun that is within us, penetrating us with His light and His fire, all the virtues of the Saviour are reflected in our being.

Communion is, in effect, the divine mold of Jesus in our souls and in our bodies.

24th September 2021 Hear the words of Jesus: “He who eateth my Body and drinketh my Blood abideth in me, and Iin him.” So does Jesus live in the communicant, and the communicant in Jesus. It is a joining of two lives, an ineffable union of love, one and the same life in two persons.

Furthermore, Holy Communion is happiness. What is hap¬piness if not the possession of an infinite good, the real and permanent possession of God? Well, such is the divine fruit of Communion.

Communion is also peace. Jesus is the God of peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you,” He said to His Apostles after He had given them Communion — not the troubled and stormy peace of the world, but the peace of God, so sweet that it passes all understanding. With one word, Jesus quiets the tempest; with one glance He scatters and lays low our enemies.

Holy Communion, again, is sweetness. It is the true manna that satisfies all our desires, because it possesses all sweetness. It is the celestial fragrance of the fair Lily of the Valley, which enraptures us in God.

Catholic Voice The humble and recollected soul feels in its depths a cer¬tain joyous tremor caused by the presence of Jesus Christ; it feels itself unfolding beneath the warmth of this Sun of love; it experiences a well-being, an alertness, a sweetness, a force of union, of adhesion to God, that come not from itself. It is aware of Jesus in all its being and looks upon itself as a paradise inhabited by God, where, as in another heavenly court, it may repeat all the praises, thanksgivings, and benedictions sung by the angels and saints to God in glory.

O happy moment of Communion, which makes us forget our exile and its miseries! O sweet repose of the soul on the very Heart of Jesus!

This good Master knows very well that we need to taste the sweetness of love now and then! One cannot be always on the Calvary of suffering, nor in the thick of the battle. The child needs the mother’s bosom; the Christian, the Heart of Jesus.

Yes, virtue without Communion is like the strength of the lion; it is the result of combat, of violence; it is hard. If it is to have the gentleness of the lamb, we must drink the

THE HOLY EUCHARIST 25 Blood of the spotless Lamb; we must eat this honey of the desert.

After all, happiness begets love; we love only that which gives happiness. Seek no farther, then.

The Saviour has placed this divine happiness neither in the different virtues nor in His other mysteries, but solely within Himself. To taste His joy to the full, we must receive Him as our Food. “Taste and see how sweet is the Lord,” said the prophet. And our Lord Him¬self said, “He who eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath everlasting life.” And that life everlasting is Heaven; it is sanctity beatified in Jesus Christ.

Thus the Saviour’s virtues, the different mysteries of His life, and even of His Passion are but so many roads whose destina¬tion is the eucharistic Cenacle. Only there has Jesus made Himself a lasting abode on earth. There we must dwell, there live and die.

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a chapter in St. Peter Julian Eymard’s How to Get More out of Holy Communion.

The Eucharist Should Not Be Received Unworthily Courtney Mares Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday.

“It is still the doctrine of the Church that anyone who knows himself or herself to be in a state of serious sin which distances him from the love of God should not move forward to receive the Holy Communion simply because everybody is going,” Cardinal John Onaiyekan said during a live-streamed catechesis in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on Sept. 9.

“He must first avail himself of the sacrament of reconciliation with God through confession.”

“But unfortunately, what we see is a general stream of people going for Communion at Mass, and it seems like they don’t really bother about whether they are in the right spiritual state to receive it.”

“It is the duty of pastors to remind the faithful about this, without introducing unnecessary exaggerations in the matter. It is also the duty of pastors to make access to confession easily available for the faithful.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan served as the archbishop of Abuja from 1994 until 2019, when Pope Francis accepted his retirement at the age of 75. He delivered an hour-long catechesis on Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist at the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress taking place in Hungary on Sept. 5-12.

The 77-year-old cardinal recommended that priests preach on the worthy reception of the Eucharist so that people will know when they are in an irregular situation and “will regulate their behaviour without waiting to be publicly pulled out of the Communion rails.”

“There is a debate going on in some countries about whether a politician who for political reasons votes for an immoral law should be stopped from Holy Communion,” Onaiyekan said.

“If voting for an immoral law, even in a secular state, amounts to becoming an accomplice to the crime, then we would be dealing with a moral decision that is incompatible with receiving Holy Communion.”

26 THE POWER OF PRAYER

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

Quieting the Heart in Prayer Fr. Shenan J. Boquet

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.

There is need of only one thing.

Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” ─ Luke 10:41-42 There is great anxiety and fear in the world right now. Can you feel it? I can.

Many people are greatly troubled at many things. I am hearing again and again from people that they are on edge. People are overwhelmed by what is going on in the world, in the Church, and in their families.

There is a sense of mental and spiritual oppression, of a heavy weight pressing down on us, a sense of foreboding.

The constant bombardment with terrifying news about the pandemic; the widespread confusion over public health measures; the growing polarisation of our politics; news of turmoil and war overseas; the seemingly endless parade of scandals within the Church, etc., etc.

The heat of this historical moment is leading to dissension in families, among friends, and within communities. More and more I hear from family members who lament that in the past year or two communication has broken down with their children, parents, or siblings. These relationships 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.

Christ with Martha and Mary - Henryk Siemiradzki (1843 – 1902) seemed relatively free and easy not so long ago. Now, it feels as if every conversation is a minefield in which the tiniest misstep will set off an explosion.

I will not pretend that the answer to all of these problems is easy or straightforward. It takes great wisdom to navigate a time of turmoil. The practical problems we face are complex far beyond the ability of any of us to adequately sort through or solve. However, I would like to take the opportunity to exhort everyone to use these pressures and these anxieties to drive them towards the only remedy that truly works, and the one that we are so often tardy in reaching towards.

We are Slow in Turning to Prayer “This is that which most of all hinders heavenly comfort,” writes Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ, “that thou art slow in turning thyself to prayer.”

Yes, we are too slow to turn ourselves to prayer. For most of us, prayer – if we pray – is something that we scarcely squeeze into the spare moments of the day. On many days, we may even find that the day has gone by, and we have not prayed at all. At least, not really prayed.

Perhaps we sat with the Scriptures for a few minutes in the morning.

Perhaps we even made it to Mass.

But if we are honest, we will admit that we were deeply distracted.

Perhaps we had already checked our Facebook or our Twitter accounts and seen something that made us anxious, or angry, or sad. Instead of the peace that comes from resting with the Lord, like St. John on the breast of Christ at the Last Supper, our minds were already going a million miles a minute.

We must recommit ourselves to prayer. And if we have never had a solid habit of prayer, we must make the effort, now, to learn how to pray,

24th September 2021 and to carve out the space for real, contemplative, silent prayer.

“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret,” said Christ. (Matthew 6:6) Do you have a private space in your house, even just a corner of your room, that is set aside for prayer? If not, why not? Prayer is not a thing that can be done amidst the hurly burly of daily life.

Christ Himself, when He wanted to pray, went away from the crowd, into the desert. Often, He dedicated the most silent hours of the night to prayer; the hours when He could be entirely alone with His Heavenly Father.

We must learn to pray as Christ prayed. Not with many words, but with our innermost heart.

THE POWER OF PRAYER 27

Catholic Voice “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” asked the two disciples after the encounter with Christ on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:32) Do our hearts burn within us when we too encounter Christ in prayer? Or are we too filled with distractions and fears to hear the voice of Christ speak Truth with the “small still voice” that Elijah heard on Mount Horeb, after the noise of the wind and the earthquake and the fire. (1 Kings 19:12-13)

are being swept up into the chaos and disorder of this age, and whose hearts are consequently deeply troubled and restless.

Cardinal Sarah makes it clear that if we are to find the peace of Christ, then we must secede, both spiritually and physically, from the culture of noise in this modern world. “How can man really be in the image of God?” Cardinal Sarah asks at one point. “He must enter into silence.

When he drapes himself in silence, as God himself dwells in a great silence, man is close to heaven, or, rather, he allows God to manifest himself in him.”

Seek Silence: Physical and Interior Over the past few years, I have many times given spiritual retreats using Cardinal Robert Sarah’s book, The Power of Silence. This modern spiritual classic has a great deal to offer those of us who

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 POWER OF PRAYER

Catholic Voice

The world is fractious, chaotic, noisy; the public space is so much consumed by the dominance of our passions, by the pursuit of pleasure and of power. Human beings are born with a great hunger in their hearts. And because we are born in Original Sin, that great hunger so easily goes awry. Instead of our hearts aiming at God like an arrow to the target, our appetites rove about, looking for things to consume. It is this that brings so much sorrow to our lives.

The only answer is to remake our hearts by forging them in the crucible of God’s loving presence. And the only way to do this is to enter the burning heat of prayer. Authentic prayer. The kind of prayer that is only possible when we set everything else aside, and when we seek God with a single-mindedness.

If there is such a lack of peace in the world today, and even more importantly, if there is a lack of peace in our hearts, it is first and foremost because we are not peaceful. This is what Thomas à Kempis says. “Keep thyself first in peace and then thou wilt be able to bring others to peace,” he wrote. How can we bring peace to others – to our families, to our churches and communities – if we ourselves are not peaceful? It is a very good question. World peace begins with heart

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

PROTECTING PARENTAL CHOICE IN THE CLASSROOM

This CD of the compelling talk given by Charlotte McQuaid-Bruen at Catholic Voice annual conference 2019, sums up the proposed sex education to be taught across schools in Ireland in 2020. Parents, grandparents, friends, family members and clergy need to be informed about what their children are going to be subjected to.

Please help spread this talk TODAY. 4 CDs inc p&p €20 1 CD inc p&p €7.50 Complete coupon and return with cheque/postal order to John Lacken, Ballinlough, Claremorris, Co Mayo F12 TN23 Name: ...........................................................................................

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24th September 2021

peace. Heart peace leads to familial peace. Familial peace leads to peace in the community and in our nations. There are no shortcuts.

Do you wish for peace in your family? Then first cultivate a spirit of peace in your heart. Seek the face of the Prince of Peace Himself, the meek and gentle shepherd who lays down His life for His friends, who on the very cross, as He drew His dying gasps, prayed for those who murdered Him. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) In the hours when He was most persecuted, when the wolf was closing in for the kill, Christ repeatedly emphasised peace. “Put up your sword,” He told St. Peter. “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.”

(Matthew 26:52) And yet we who claim to be followers of Christ are so quick to anger and recrimination towards others, sometimes simply because they have dared to have a different opinion than us.

The Prince of Peace is waiting for us. He is waiting for you in your room when you wake up in the morning.

Before you do anything, before you check your phone, or look at the news, set aside some time for prayer. Open the Scriptures and read the Gospels. Read Cardinal Sarah’s The Power of Silence, or Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, or any of the great spiritual classics. Don’t be afraid to kneel at your bedside, or to light a candle before a crucifix or an icon. Our houses are meant to be domestic churches. God is present in our homes, but we must consciously introduce a sense of the sacred in them.

Lay Your Worries on the Lord We are all facing many anxiety-inducing questions right now: What will happen with COVID? What will happen with the Church? How will we make the right decisions, or know what to do in these confusing times? How can I respond calmly and lovingly to my family member or friend who is angry with me, or who is making choices that I fear will harm them? How can we preserve our freedoms?

“Have patience and be of good courage, comfort will come to thee in its proper season,” writes Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ. “What does that solicitude about future accidents bring thee but only sorrow upon sorrow? ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’”

Christ in the Gospel asks: “Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to your life’s span?” And again: ‘[O]ur heavenly Father knows that you need them.

24th September 2021

THE POWER OF PRAYER 29

Catholic Voice

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matthew 6:27-34) It is natural and human to be anxious and afraid. Even many of the saints admitted to being anxious about various things. And yet, they differed from us in that they engaged in combat with these temptations, training themselves to place all things in God’s hands, and to fear no evil.

There is a hidden gift in these anxious times. And the gift is this: That the various troubles may drive us to our knees, recognising our powerlessness to control the unfolding of events. We cannot control a virus. We cannot control our family members, or the media, or our politicians. We cannot fix the Church. But we can bring peace into the world by becoming more Christ-like. That is how we change the world for the better. So let us resolve today to spend more time in prayer. Pray for the Church. Pray for the world. Pray for a Culture of Life. Pray for peace.

“Lord, Teach us to Pray” - James Tissot (1836 - 1902)

Please Help Us To Promote The Five First Saturdays of Reparation Order Some of Our New Five First Saturday Devotions Cards These cards are designed to help people to complete The Five First Saturdays Devotion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Contact John Lacken 085-1208779 secretary@lumenfidei.ie

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)

30 BOOKS

Catholic Voice

24th September 2021

STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH DURING THIS CRISIS BUY CATHOLIC BOOKS! DON’T GO TO HELL Catholic Church Teaching on Hell

THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purgatory - How to Avoid it

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: ________________________________

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

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24th September 2021 Catholic Voice

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

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10 September 2021

(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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24th September 2021

And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. (Luke 22: 31-33)

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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