Catholic Voice 3rd December 2021 Issue 331

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Issue 331

Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.

Saying, “Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east, And are come to adore him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

Journey of the Magi - James Tissot (1836 – 1902)

St Joseph’s Cord Available now - see page 7

2 SEASON OF ADVENT

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

How We Should Spend Our Advent Dom Prosper Gueranger If our holy mother the Church spends the time of Advent in this solemn preparation for the threefold coming of Jesus Christ; if, after the example of the prudent virgins, she keeps her lamp lit ready for the coming of the Bridegroom; we, being her members and her children, ought to enter into her spirit, and apply to ourselves this warning of our Saviour: ‘Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands, and ye yourselves be like unto men who wait for their Lord!’

The Church and we have, in reality, the same hopes. Each one of us is, on the part of God, an object of mercy and care, as is the Church herself. If she is the temple of God, it is because she is built of living stones; if she is the bride, it is because she consists of all the souls which are invited to eternal union with God. If it is written that the Saviour hath purchased the Church with His own Blood, may not each one of us say of himself those words of St. Paul, ‘Christ hath loved me, and hath delivered Himself up for me’?

Our destiny being the same, then, as that of the Church, we should endeavour during Advent, to enter into the spirit of preparation, which is, as we have seen, that of the Church herself.

And firstly, it is our duty to join with the saints of the old Law in asking

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for the Messiah, and thus pay the debt which the whole human race owes to the divine mercy. In order to fulfil this duty with fervour, let us go back in thought to those four thousand years, represented by the four weeks of Advent, and reflect on the darkness and crime which filled the world before our Saviour’s coming.

Let our hearts be filled with lively gratitude towards Him who saved His creature man from death, and who came down from heaven that He might know our miseries by Himself experiencing them, yes, all of them excepting sin. Let us cry to Him with confidence from the depths of our misery; for, notwithstanding His having saved the work of His hands, He still wishes us to beseech Him to save us. Let therefore our desires and our confidence have their free utterance in the ardent supplications of the ancient prophets, which the Church puts on our lips during these days of expectation; let us give our closest attention to the sentiments which they express.

This first duty complied with, we must next turn our minds to the coming which our Saviour wishes to accomplish in our own hearts.

It is, as we have seen, a coming full of sweetness and mystery, and a consequence of the first; for the good Shepherd comes not only to visit the flock in general, but He extends His solicitude to each one of the sheep, even to the hundredth which is lost.

Now, in order to appreciate the whole of this ineffable mystery, we must remember that, ‘since we can be pleasing to our heavenly Father only inasmuch as He sees within us His Son Jesus Christ, this amiable Saviour deigns to come into each one of us, and transform us, if we will but consent, into Himself, so that henceforth we may live, not we, but He in us.

This is, in reality, the one grand aim of the Christian religion, to make man divine through Jesus Christ: it is the task which God has given to His Church to do, and she says to the faithful what St. Paul said to his Galatians: ‘My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed within you!’

But as, on His entering into this world, our divine Saviour first showed Himself under the form of a weak Babe, before attaining the fullness of the age of manhood, and this to the end that nothing might be wanting to His sacrifice, so does He intend to do in us; there is to be a progress in His growth within us.

Now, it is at the feast of Christmas that He delights to be born in our souls, and that He pours out over the whole Church a grace of being born, to which, however, not all are faithful.

For this glorious solemnity, as often as it comes round, finds three classes of men. The first, and the smallest number, are those who live,in all its plenitude, the life of Jesus who is within them, and aspire incessantly after the increase of this life. The second class of souls is more numerous; they are living, it is true, because Jesus is in them; but they are sick and weakly, because they care not to grow in this divine life; their charity has become cold!

The rest of men make up the third division, and are they that have no part of this life in them, and are dead; for Christ has said: ‘I am the Life.’

Now, during the season of Advent, our Lord knocks at the door of all men’s hearts, at one time so forcibly that they must needs notice Him; at another, so softly that it requires attention to know that Jesus is asking admission.

He comes to ask them if they have room for Him, for He wishes to be born in their house. The house indeed is His, for he built it and preserves it; yet He complains that

3rd December 2021 Catholic Voice

ADVENT APPEAL 3

CATHOLIC VOICE ADVENT APPEAL Dear Reader As we approach the Advent season this year we especially ask you to consider Catholic Voice as a recipient of your Advent giving.

Your generosity of prayerful and financial support since the coronavirus pandemic started, has enabled us to continue spreading Catholic news and Truth. We have been able to continue reaching a wide audience of readers , not only in Ireland but in many different countries.

During this year we have all been challenged in many ways including the closing of churches and the absence of the sacraments. Many of you have become more aware that Catholic Voice is a not for profit organisation and neither we nor our contributors and promoters take a salary.

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4 SEASON OF ADVENT

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3rd December 2021

His own refused to receive Him; at least the greater number did. ‘But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, born not of blood, nor of the flesh, but of God.” He will be born, then, with more beauty and lustre and might than you have hitherto seen in Him, Oh ye faithful ones, who hold Him within you as your only treasure, and who have long lived no other life than His, shaping your thoughts and works on the model of His. You will feel the necessity of words to suit and express your love; such words as He delights to hear you speak to Him. You will find them in the holy liturgy.

You, who have had Him within you without knowing Him, and have possessed Him without relishing the sweetness of His presence, open your hearts to welcome Him, this time, with more care and love. He repeats His visit of this year with an untiring tenderness; He has forgotten your past slights; He would ‘that all things be new.’

Make room for the divine Infant, for He desires to grow within your soul. The time of His coming is close at hand: let your heart, then, be on the watch; and lest you should slumber when He arrives, watch and pray, yea, sing. The words of the liturgy are intended also for your use: they speak of darkness, which only God can enlighten; of wounds, which only His mercy can heal; of a faintness, which can be braced only by His divine energy.

And you, Christians, for whom the good tidings are as things that are not, because you are dead in sin, lo! He who is very life is coming among you. Yes, whether this death of sin has held you as its slave for long years, or has but freshly inflicted on you the wound which made you its victim, Jesus, your Life, is coming: ‘why, then, will you die? He desires not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live,’ The grand feast of His birth will be a day of mercy for the whole world; at least, for all who will give Him admission into their hearts: they will rise to life again in Him, their past life will be destroyed, and where sin abounded, there grace will more abound.

But, if the tenderness and the attractiveness of this mysterious coming makes no impression on you,

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.

There was no room at the Inn - James Tissot (1836 – 1902)

because your heart is too weighed down to be able to rise to confidence, and because, having so long drunk sin like water, you know not what it is to long with love for the caresses of a Father whom you have slightedthen turn your thoughts to that other coming, which is full of terror, and is to follow the silent one of grace that is now offered.

Think within yourselves, how this earth of ours will tremble at the approach of the dread Judge; how the heavens will flee from before His face, and fold up as a book; how man will wince under His angry look; how the creature will wither away with fear, as the two edged sword, which comes from the mouth of his Creator, pierces him; and how sinners will cry out, , Ye mountains, fall on us! ye rocks, cover us !’

Those unhappy souls who would not know the time of their visitation, shall then vainly wish to hide themselves from the face of Jesus. They shut their hearts against this Man-God, who, in His excessive love for them, wept over them: therefore, on the day of judgement they will descend alive into those everlasting fires, whose flame devours the earth with her increase, and burns the foundations of the mountains. The worm that never dies, the useless eternal repentance, will gnaw them for ever.

3rd December 2021

Catholic Voice

SEASON OF ADVENT 5

Let those, then, who are not touched by the tidings of the coming of the heavenly Physician and the good Shepherd who giveth His life for His sheep, meditate during Advent on the awful yet certain truth, that so many render the redemption unavailable to themselves by refusing to co-operate in their own salvation. They may treat the Child who is to be born with disdain; but He is also the mighty God, and do they think they can withstand Him on that day, when He is to come, not to save, as now, but to judge?

Would that they knew more of this divine Judge, before whom the very saints tremble! Let these, also, use the liturgy of this season, and they will there learn how much He is to be feared by sinners.

We would not imply by this that only sinners need to fear; no, every Christian ought to fear. Fear, when there is no nobler sentiment with it, makes man a slave; when it accompanies love, it is a feeling which fills the heart of a child who has offended his father, yet seeks for pardon; when, at length, love casts out fear, even then this holy fear will sometimes come, and, like a flash of lightning, pervade the deepest recesses of the soul.

It does the soul good. She wakes up afresh to a keener sense of her own misery and of the unmerited mercy of her Redeemer. Let no one, therefore, think that he may safely pass his Advent without taking any share in the holy fear which animates the Church. She, though so beloved by God, prays to Him to give her this fear; and in her Office ‘of Sext, she thus cries out to Him: ‘Pierce my flesh with Thy fear.’ It is, however, to those who are beginning a good life, that this part of the Advent liturgy will be peculiarly serviceable.

It is evident, from what we have said, that Advent is a season specially devoted to the exercises of what is called the purgative life, which is implied in that expression of St. John, so continually repeated by the Church during this holy time:

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”

Let all, therefore, strive earnestly to make straight the path by which Jesus will enter into their souls. Let the just, agreeable to the teaching of the apostle, forget the things that are behind, and labour to acquire fresh merit. Let sinners begin at once and break the chains which now enslave them.

Let them give up those bad habits which they have contracted. Let them weaken the flesh, and enter upon the hard work of subjecting it to the spirit. Let them, above all things, pray with the Church. And when our Lord comes, they may hope that He will not pass them by, but that He will enter and dwell within them; for He spoke or all when He said these words: ‘Behold I stand at the gate and knock: if any man shall hear My voice and open to Me the door, I will come in unto him.’

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6 PRIESTLY SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Cardinal Sarah Calls Catholic Priests To Spiritual Renewal Hannah Brockhaus In a new book, Cardinal Robert Sarah calls priests to spiritual renewal, saying that it will not come through structural changes, but through rediscovering the priest’s mission and identity as the presence of Christ in the world.

“Christ never created structures. Of course, I’m not saying they aren’t necessary. Organisation is useful in society, but it is not first,” Sarah said in a Nov. 16 interview with the Catholic French weekly Famille Chrétienne.

“What is first is the very first word of Christ in the Gospel of Mark: ‘Convert and believe in the Gospel.’”

The Vatican’s former liturgy chief published “Pour l’éternité: Méditations sur la figure du prêtre” (“For Eternity: Meditations on the Figure of the Priest”) in Europe on Nov. 17.

The book, currently available only in French, includes passages from saints and the Church Fathers to encourage meditation on the renewal of the priesthood, which, according to the cardinal, is a necessary step on the way to resolving the crisis in the Catholic Church.

Photo: François-Régis Salefran CC4

“If priests, if society look to God, then I think things will change,” he told Famille Chrétienne. “If hearts are not changed by the Gospel, politics will not change, the economy will not change, human relationships will not change. It is Christ who is our peace, who will create more fraternal human relations, of collaboration, of cooperation.”

Structures “are also often a danger, because we take refuge behind them,“ he said. “God will not ask accounts of an episcopal conference, of a synod … It is us, bishops, that he will hold accountable: how did you manage your diocese, how did you love your priests, how did you accompany them spiritually?”

Sarah ended a more than six-year term as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in February.

The 76-year-old from Guinea wrote a book on the priesthood, celibacy, and the crisis of the Catholic Church, “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” in 2020.

Sarah said that in his new book he wanted to express his affection and encouragement both to priests who are struggling and those who feel strong in their vocation.

“It is about encouraging them not to lose God, to have the courage to follow Christ as they accepted from the beginning, on the day of their ordination,” he explained.

“Because the crisis that we are going through today in the Church depends essentially on the priestly crisis.”

The cardinal also commented on the scandal of abuse in the priesthood, saying that the Church “must not be afraid of the truth.”

“We must feel deeply hurt, suffer from it as Christ suffered when Judas betrayed him, when Peter denied him,” he said, adding that the Church and her priests are supposed to be models, and even one case of abuse is too many.

“The discovery of so many sins committed gives us a better understanding of the apparent sterility of our

3rd December 2021

PRIESTLY SPIRITUAL RENEWAL 7

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local churches. How could we bear fruit when such cancer was gnawing at us from within? We must rediscover the meaning of penance and contrition,” he said, urging adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament “in reparation for the profanations committed against his image in the souls of children.”

Sarah added that Catholics should not let themselves be overcome by discouragement, however, because the overwhelming majority of priests are faithful, which is a cause for thanksgiving.

“Their daily and hidden fidelity makes no noise, but it silently carries deep seeds of renewal,” he said.

“It is up to us to see how the guilty priests can be punished and, if possible, cared for, healed, accompanied, so that such acts do not happen again,” the cardinal continued. “Above all, it is up to us not to let these horrors turn souls away from Christ and lock up so many innocent victims in suffering.”

Sarah’s book is dedicated to seminarians, and he said he wanted to encourage them too, because they are studying to become priests at a difficult time.

not the France of the 21st century,” Sarah responded: “Indeed, but man is the same. Man does not change.

He has the same ambitions, he has the same flaws, the same vices from Adam until today.”

“It is only the circumstances that we have created that can confuse us, but man does not change,” he insisted, adding that “the Frenchman of the Curé d’Ars is the Frenchman of today, with the difference that the Frenchman of today has a cell phone … But in his ambitions, in his vices, and his faults, he is the same. We still need holy priests identified with Christ.”

The cardinal also commented on the way that France and other Western

countries have closed themselves off to God. “If France, if the West, thanks to the ministry of priests, rediscover that God has come among us, that he loves us, that he wants our salvation, that he wants us to discover the truth and that this truth will help us will set free, then the mission will be possible,” he said.

“But there is no need to despair,” he continued. “That is why priests must rediscover their mission, priests must rediscover their identity. They are the presence of Christ in the midst of this world.

If they conduct themselves well, if they are the presence of Christ, then France and the West can rediscover him little by little.”

The

Dominicans

Truth

...more Precious than Time

He said that he wanted to tell them that if Christ has called them to the Catholic priesthood, he will also give them the means to really follow him.

“Try to take this call seriously. The Lord who calls you is not going to leave you alone. He will support you with his grace, but you yourself must be a fully realised man, a true, honest, upright man who has all the human qualities,” he said.

Families play an important role in supporting priests, he noted, encouraging people to invite priests into their homes to pray and converse.

"Truth is not something that we invent; if we do it is a lie. Rather it is something that we discover, like Love."

A strong prayer life is vital for every priest, he said, citing the example of the saints such as St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars.

- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

When his interviewer pointed out that “the France of the Curé of Ars is

www.irishdominicanvocations.com

8 LIFE IS A BATTLE

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Multitudes In The Valley Of Decision!

The Dramatic Battle In Which We Live Mons Charles Pope

A grave deficiency of modern times is the loss of the sense that our lives are caught up in a tremendous, epic battle. Yet here we are living in the midst of a great drama — in the greatest story ever told.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; And defend me from them That rise up against me.

(Psalm 58:2)

Behind the scenes is a deadly enemy, one of whom many rarely speak: Satan. Yet, he is active and involved, manipulating both the world and the flesh (our sinful nature). We are on the front lines of a fierce spiritual war, a war that is to blame for most of the casualties you see around you.

Yes, fellow Christians, there is a dragon, a roaring lion — Satan — who seeks to devour our souls.

Ah! But there is also a Son, a Saviour, who is born to us and whom we call Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

He shall reign forever. His hand is outstretched, first on the cross, but now outstretched to you to save you and to draw you up out of the raging waters, to deliver you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light!

Will you take hold of His hand, or not? This is the decision — your decision — is the great drama of

your life and of every life; it is your chapter in the greatest story ever told.

Yes, the battle rages all around us, and we are swept up in it! It’s happening in our world, our culture, our families, and in our hearts. The sequence hymn from Easter says dramatically of it, Mors et vita duello; Conflixere Mirando (death and life at battle in a stupendous conflict).

The Book of Joel vividly describes the great drama. It is not merely an eschatological battle but a battle that is already around us in the decision we must make, in the war we must wage (with God’s grace) against the evil that is in and around us. It is a vivid and dramatic war, and we must choose sides. Our decision will one day be revealed in the great judgment that is coming on this world.

Prepare war, stir up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am a warrior.’

Hasten and come, all you nations round about, gather yourselves there. Bring down thy warriors, O LORD. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes! Multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision (Joel 3:9-14).

Text after text in the Bible describes the awesome drama and the great decision we must make, a decision on which hinges our very destiny.

Here are just a few: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him.

For that will mean life for you (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this

3rd December 2021

LIFE IS A BATTLE 9

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child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own heart also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-36).

Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I have told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I AM” (John 8:23-24).

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation (Matthew 26:41).

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15).

principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:12-14).

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed! (Galatians 1:4)

Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone For we are not contending against to devour. Resist him, firm in your flesh and blood, but against the faith (1 Peter 1:8).

The devotion to the Cord of St. Joseph took its rise in Belgium, in 1637, in consequence of a miraculous cure effected by the wearing of this precious girdle. During this year of Saint Joseph you may wish to wear the cord to avail of the

A great sign appeared in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.

And another portent appeared in heavens; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne …

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth …

GRACES ATTACHED TO THE WEARING OF THE CORD. Graces precious to the piety of St. Joseph’s servants are attached to the wearing of this cord. They are: 1. St. Joseph’s special protection 2. Purity of soul; 3. The grace of chastity; The Cord 4. Final perseverance; 5. Particular assistance at the hour of death.

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10 LIFE IS A BATTLE

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3rd December 2021

Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child … The dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus (Revelation 12, selected verses).

“Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!” And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon (Revelation 16:15-16).

So here we are in the Valley of Decision (in Hebrew, the Valley of Armageddon). Here is the drama of our life! Multitudes in the Valley of Decision! All of us have a decision to make, an army to join, a direction to choose! Tertium non datur (No third way is given).

There are only two armies on the field of battle; there are no demilitarised zones, no sidelines. Choose an army! What will it be, light or darkness, grace or sin, Jesus or Beelzebub?

Yes, here is the immense drama in the greatest story ever told; it is our drama and our story.

Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take Yet this drama is rarely discussed today. In the very up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24) times in which the contrast between the two ways has never been clearer or starker, there is near silence.

If anything, our times are marked by boredom and a lack of awareness of the battle that is raging around us. We have “spiritual ADHD”: endlessly fidgeting but never focusing on what matters. There is also a kind of “spiritual myopia,” in which the two armies are lost in the blur of perceived (but not real) pluralism.

Put plainly, if you don’t think that this drama is real and that a choice between the two sides is required, if you think that the biblical texts cited above are histrionic and hysterical, you have been deceived. You have been lulled to sleep by the spirit of this age. You’ve been deceived by Satan, as was Eve long ago when he said to her, “You surely will not die.”

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All of us must wake up to the battle raging around us, to the great drama in our life, a drama that is unfolding before our eyes. If you insist on sleeping through the drama or ignoring the summons to wake up, beware!

For Scripture says of such dreamers that there will come upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2:11-13).

Awaken to the drama! Choose the Lord! Be a soldier in His army! Only Jesus can save us from this “present evil age.” His grace and mercy are there for us in abundance, but His respect for our freedom means that our choices matter; they build in one direction or the other. This is the drama of our life, and it is also our dignity. Scripture pronounces a great blessing on those who choose the Lord: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father; to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen (Galatians 1:1-2).

3rd December 2021

Catholic Voice

THE COLLAPSE OF MODERNISM 11

Footage Of Dublin Church Demolition Symbolises Collapse Of Modernist Faith In Ireland Tim Jackson A 3,500-seat Irish church built in the 1960s is coming down along with Mass attendance, which has collapsed from more than 90% back then to as low as 2% in parts of Dublin.

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” – (Matthew 7:19) One of Ireland’s biggest churches is currently being demolished and with it any reason to believe the modernist faith preached in most Irish parishes will survive the coming decades.

The Church of the Annunciation in north Dublin was built in the 1960s. Its brutalist architecture was typical of the age, with countless such churches and civic buildings staining the Irish landscape for generations since.

The otherwise orthodox Archbishop John Charles McQuaid commissioned the 3,500-seat church in 1962, opening it in 1967, at a time when weekly Mass attendance was over 90% in an overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland.

No doubt his intentions were good, but Archbishop McQuaid and others must have been unaware of the heresies that would steadily spread through ecclesiastical and lay circles alike, leaving his new building with a shelf life of little more than 50 years:

admitting that such outrageous wrongs can only take place in an atmosphere of moral laxity, where weak, sentimental bishops cover for predator priests, ignoring the all-too-voiceless children who were abused and sidelined.

Horrendous as it was, the abuse scandals were only a catalyst for the continued decline of the Catholic faith in Ireland. The falloff had begun long before the extent of the abuse became clear with the Ferns Report in 2005.

Ireland had gone from 91% weekly Mass attendance among adult Catholics in 1972 to 81% in 1990 to 30% by 2011, with recent surveys suggesting attendance in parts of Dublin to be as low as 2%.

While an exact picture today is hard to come by because the Sunday obligation has been lifted for more than a year, the overall reality is indisputable: Most churches will be surplus to requirements within 20 years.

The fact the demolished Church of the Annunciation will be replaced by a much smaller but no less unseemly chapel would indicate that most church leaders have learned little as to what has gone wrong.

The disinterest in building a beautiful replacement church to glorify God, where reverent liturgies could raise souls to heaven, says as much about the Dublin parish’s lack of zeal as it does about their indifference towards Tradition.

There is, mercifully, fruit in those parishes and religious orders where orthodoxy is promoted, where the sexual revolution is roundly rejected and children fill the pews, and where vocations to the priesthood and religious life are still prayed for and received.

Such churches may be few in Ireland, but they are very much the future and will once again make up the backbone of Catholicism on the island.

The coming synod, as in most countries, is doomed to fail if clergy are unwilling to embrace the full-blooded Catholicism of the saints. Thankfully, there are many who hold and teach the true faith.

It is, after all, a redeemable situation in Ireland, Europe and the West if new saints play their part in God’s plan to rebuild His Church.

So while demolition jobs might continue in Ireland, those with supernatural faith know that God is rebuilding something much better.

It seems clear now that the creeping liturgical, doctrinal and moral laxities of the late 1960s, coupled with the nascent sexual revolution, has set in train the self-destruction of modernism itself, with most of the laity slowly but surely turning their backs on what the majority of parishes offer.

To this day, however, many clergy still propagate the very modernist ideas and practices that are hastening the end of their sterile reign, an even sadder reality considering the countless souls at stake.

There has been much reporting about the clerical sex abuse of children and the cover-ups in Ireland, with authorities seldom

The Church of the Annunciation, Dublin - Before (inset image JP CC”) After - The Altar amidst the Ruins - Image itsmyireland youtube screen grab

12 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

“Many Souls Go To Hell Because They Have No One To Pray And Make Sacrifices For Them.”

John Lacken Let us pray for our Irish Bishops in these strange times that we live in.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Our Irish bishops have been quite insistent that the laity obey the unjust state laws which have restricted access to the sacraments.

However, they are not so quick to obey Church law themselves.

A recent example of this happened on Sunday 14th November, 2021, at the International Marian and Eucharistic shrine in Knock, where a National Memorial Holy Mass was celebrated for those who died during the so called pandemic.

Most of Ireland’s Catholic bishops attended this Holy Mass.

When it came time to distribute Holy Communion, all of the bishops remained seated whilst lay extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion distributed communion to the congregation.

This is a liturgical abuse and it once again clearly shows that our bishops do not seem to have a proper understanding of their function within the Catholic Church.

Christ commanded His apostles to “feed my lambs’, ‘feed my sheep.’(John 21:15,16,17) He also told them ‘For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.’ (John 6:56) At least two documents of the Catholic Church deal with this form of liturgical abuse in the strongest of terms.

The Instruction of the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine

Irish Bishops refrain from distributing Holy Communion at Holy Mass

Worship, ‘Inaestimabile Donum’, approved and published by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1980 says: The faithful, whether religious or lay, who are authorized as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist can distribute Communion only when there is no priest, deacon or acolyte, when the priest is impeded by illness or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful going to Communion is so large as to make the celebration of Mass excessively long.

Accordingly, a reprehensible attitude is shown by those priests who, though present at the celebration, refrain from distributing Communion and leave this task to the laity. (Inaestimabile Donum 11- emphasis added) This was re-iterated in 2004 in the instruction ‘Redemptionis Sacramentum’.

“If there is usually present a sufficient number of sacred ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion, extraordinary

ministers of Holy Communion may not be appointed. Indeed, in such circumstances, those who may have already been appointed to this ministry should not exercise it.

The practice of those Priests is reprobated who, even though present at the celebration, abstain from distributing Communion and hand this function over to laypersons.” (Redemptionis Sacramentum 157 - emphasis added) As can be seen from the photo above and from the video on the Knock Shrine Youtube page, the Basilica was far from maximum capacity.

There were at least eighteen bishops present and several priests, so there were ample ‘ordinary’ ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion and the use of extraordinary ministers was therefore forbidden.

What are lay people to make of a situation where our bishops go to extreme lengths to obey unjust governmental restrictions but treat the higher Catholic Church law with disregard?

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Catholic Voice

PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 13

Perhaps these bishops are badly formed! Perhaps they are unaware of what the Catholic Church teaches regarding the distribution of Holy Communion! But either way, this is bad for the Catholic Church.

It would seem as if our bishops have become corporate managers for an organisation which is being run like a business rather than being run for the salvation of souls. It is the duty of the diocesan bishops to correct these liturgical abuses, but when it is the bishops themselves, en masse, who partake in these liturgical abuses you can be guaranteed that nothing will be done about it.

We must pray and we must ask God to send us true shepherds. We must make reparation for the sins of the Irish people and most important of all, we must amend anything in our own lives that does not conform to God’s Holy Will and we must strive for perfection and sanctity of life.

We should follow the advice given in the book of Jeremiah.

“Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and thou shall say: Return, O rebellious Israel, says the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.

But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, says the Lord.

Return, O ye revolting children, says the Lord: for I am your husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.

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

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem - Rembrandt (1606 - 1669)

And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.” (Jeremiah 3:12-15) We are living in a time of great apostasy where the message of Our Lady of Fatima becomes more important by the day. She said that “many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them” Imagine standing before Our Lord at our particular judgement and being told that souls went to Hell because we did not pray and make sacrifices for them when we could have done so!

In this issue of Catholic Voice we have the first part of an article on Conscience and Vaccines from Fr Ambrose. We have the second part of an article by Mary Russell, dealing with the Northern Irish bishops’ response to the Relationships and Sexuality Education programme.

So many Catholics are unaware of the connection between these worldly events and the crisis in the Catholic Church, which is first and foremost a crisis of faith.

The global abortion movement, the global sex education movement,

the global trafficking in the organs of aborted babies, the global climate change movement, the global tainted vaccination programmes, the global covid-19 pandemic movement, the global LGBT movement, and other global movements, are all controlled by a small coterie of individuals whose purpose is world domination and control.

They seek to break the human race in order to make us docile so that they can control us more easily.

In the third chapter of the book of Genesis we meet the devil for the first time in the guise of a serpent.

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?

And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.

14 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.

For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) Notice what the serpent falsely promises and see how these globalist movements seek to become as Gods, trying to exercise total dominion over mankind. We are created in the image and likeness of God, but these globalists seek to remake man in their own image.

They reduce mankind to just another animal life form and they seek to manage us like a herd, controlling and destroying our fertility, killing our young, killing our elderly, killing off the handicapped and the imperfect, and mocking the Catholic Church.

They seek to destroy family life and marriage by successfully promoting all kinds of sexual perversion to all age groups. Natural human desires, when allowed to go unchecked, turn into vices which create social havoc and destroy families and society.

Men and women who have not learned to control their sensual appetites become fearful of loss and death. They can thereby be very easily manipulated through scaremongering.

Any threat to the stability of their lives, to their quest for pleasure and self-satisfaction or through a perceived threat to their liberty to selfishly indulge themselves, will lead them to blindly follow any leader who promises a way to return them to the trough of their selfish indulgence.

We are witnessing this manipulation in our society now, through unproven threats of climate catastrophe, of estimates of mass covid pandemic deaths which have yet to materialise. See how willing the general population are to give

The Children of Fatima - Lucia Santos, Francisco & Jacinta Marto

up their basic freedoms, to wear masks, to stay at home when told, to ostracise those who do not conform to the vaccine coercion, to accept that boys can become girls and that girls can become boys and that one’s sex and gender are assigned at birth rather than being discovered through the scientific method of observation.

Those who control the narrative have decided that the planet has too many human beings on it and they seek to drastically reduce this number.

In 2019, Fr John Zuhlsdorf commented on an article by Kirk Durstan, which in turn referenced a book by Joseph Daniel Unwin, which was written in 1934, and which studied 86 societies and civilisations to see if there is a connection between sexual freedom and societal flourishing. Here are some of the key findings: 1. Effect of sexual constraints: Increased sexual constraints, either pre or post-nuptial, always led to increased flourishing of a culture. Conversely, increased sexual freedom always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later.

2. Single most influential factor: Surprisingly, the data revealed

that the single most important correlation with the flourishing of a culture was whether prenuptial chastity was required or not. It had a very significant effect either way.

3. Highest flourishing of culture: The most powerful combination was pre-nuptial chastity coupled with “absolute monogamy”.

Rationalist cultures that retained this combination for at least three generations exceeded all other cultures in every area, including literature, art, science, furniture, architecture, engineering, and agriculture. Only three out of the eighty-six cultures studied ever attained this level.

4. Effect of abandoning prenuptial chastity: When strict prenuptial chastity was no longer the norm, absolute monogamy, deism, and rational thinking also disappeared within three generations. [Listen to young people and the Left.]

5. Total sexual freedom: If total sexual freedom was embraced by a culture, that culture collapsed within three generations to the lowest state of flourishing — which Unwin describes as “inert” and at a “dead level of conception” and is characterized by people who

3rd December 2021

Catholic Voice

have little interest in much else other than their own wants and needs. At this level, the culture is usually conquered or taken over by another culture with greater social energy.

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;” are almost upon us.

Towards the end of his article Kirk Durstan mentions Mary Eberstadt.

The nations of the west are heading for collapse through the promotion of sexual license which leads to mass killings through abortion and euthanasia, and perhaps through the experimental vaccines.

“Her research indicates that increased sexual freedom led to the decimation of the family, which resulted in the loss of family identity, which produces Eberstadt’s ‘primal screams’ — a massive increase in mental health issues, mass killings, and the rise of extreme identity groups at war with each other … all symptoms of a society rapidly spiralling into collapse.”

All of this should sound familiar, for this is the trajectory that our own society and that of many western nations is on. Our Lady’s warning at Fatima, that “Russia will spread

The call of Fatima is urgent. Jacinta commented to Mother Godinho when she was in an orphanage waiting to go to the hospital in Lisbon: “My dear Mother, the sins that bring most souls to Hell are the sins of the flesh. Certain fashions are going to be introduced which will offend Our Lord very much.

Those who serve God should not follow these fashions. The Church has no fashions;

PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 15 Our Lord is always the same. The sins of the world are too great. If only people knew what eternity is, they would do everything in their power to change their lives. People lose their souls because they do not think about the death of Our Lord and do not do penance.”

Let us heed the words of this little Portugese girl who died shortly before her tenth birthday, and who suffered greatly and willingly in order to save souls from Hell.

Let us join her and follow her example as best we can in doing penance and in offering all the sufferings of each day, great and small, to God through our Blessed Mother Mary. Let us pray and offer sacrifices for those who have no one else to do it for them. Let us prepare well this Advent so that this Christmas day will find us well prepared to welcome the Christ Child into our hearts and to spread the good news far and wide.

There’s A Place For Us

Homosexuality in the Divine Plan of Redemption There’s A Place For Us: This testimony does not shirk away from difficult Catholic teachings but shows with piercing clarity why the Church teaches as she does in the area of human sexuality. In our lives we are called to a lot more than sexual satisfaction. Rather, we are granted the privilege of living life on the highest possible plane in responding to the call of the greatness of being the Sons and Daughters of God.

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

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

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Jesus said to the woman: “Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?

Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee.”

“Go, And Now Sin No More.”

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16 PRIESTHOOD AND EUCHARIST

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

The Priesthood, The Eucharist, And The Power To Crush Satan Susan Skinner

I am doing a bible study on the Gospel of John. This past Saturday we were reading Chapter 13, the chapter where Jesus washes the feet of the Apostles. In this passage, Jesus institutes the Priesthood, gives us the Eucharist and the power to crush the head of Satan.

Many of the exchanges between Peter and Jesus crack me up. Peter is always trying so hard. Jesus seems to have to correct him a lot. Peter doesn’t quite see what Jesus wants him to see. It is Peter’s humiliation that ultimately makes him a good leader. A person who has been humbled tends to know what belongs to God and enables him to listen well to others.

In the exchange in chapter 13, we see Jesus prepare to wash the feet of the Apostles.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (John 13:6-7).

Jesus recognises that Peter does not understand. The exchange continues; Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him,

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“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean” (John 13:8-11).

One gets the sense here that Peter thinks what Jesus is about to do is beneath Jesus, but when Peter understands that Jesus knows what he is doing he wants more. Peter misunderstands the significance of the washing of only his feet.

Jesus speaks of the one being bathed not needing to wash. It seems to me Jesus is not referencing the fact that Peter took a bath that morning. Jesus must be referencing the soul of Peter being clean. For Peter has confessed straight to the Lord.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

We can glean from this exchange that Jesus is not saying that Judas is stinky because he didn’t take a bath, but that Judas has an unclean soul.

For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean” (John 13:11).

So we ask the question, why did Jesus wash their feet?

Was it simply to show them how to be servants? They would have had dirty feet while walking, back in those days. Washing the feet is a kindness, something a servant would do. Is this the only message? Or is there something more?

We can come to understand that Jesus means something much more in this washing. Because later in the passage he states, “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me” (John 13:18). Judas partakes in the morsel with an unclean soul. Judas becomes possessed. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him (John 13:27).

His heel will not be clean either, even if Jesus washes it. What is the significance of the heel/the feet?

For the other Apostles who were “clean”, Jesus has something much bigger. “Do you know what I have done to you?” (John 13:12).

Jesus has instituted the Priesthood. Jesus has given them the Eucharist. Jesus has given them the power to crush the head of Satan. This is the significance of washing their feet. It isn’t but mere kindness of service, it is the making of Satan as their footstool, through the authority and sacraments that Christ has instituted. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet.

3rd December 2021

Catholic Voice

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you (Romans 16:20).

A Priest has such a magnificent duty to pursue virtue and to protect his flock. If he does so, he will see the glory and power of God. All things point back to the Priesthood and the Sacraments for our purification, for our ability to crush Satan and be delivered. We cannot do this without the church. We cannot do this without the Priests. Please pray for our Priests. This is why the Priesthood is so attacked.

In these tumultuous times, we cannot abandon the barque of Peter; the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We cannot abandon it even when we don’t understand, the same way that Peter didn’t understand. When our leaders disappoint us when our senses can’t process what is happening. When we feel that all is lost, we must; “stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 1:15).

God has a bigger plan that we don’t see. God is in charge. And God’s promises are true.

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-19).

Remember it is after Jesus proclaims Peter as the rock, that he calls him Satan; And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Matthew16:22-23).

Jesus didn’t say, “oh never mind Peter, you’re not the guy because

PRIESTHOOD AND EUCHARIST 17

you’re worldly. I made a mistake.”

Peter was still the rock. And God’s Divine Providence worked Peter’s weakness for good. A good that was so much better than any of them could have imagined.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it (John 14:12).

When Pentecost arrived, these men, these Apostles were on fire. They were no longer worldly but had the Holy Spirit in them. They lived what was promised. They were divinised. God’s power was made perfect in their weaknesses. Peter is the rock.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”

performs after Pentecost is making a man’s feet strong? There are no coincidences with God. What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honour, subjecting all things under their feet (Hebrews 2:6-8).

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognised him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:3-10).

Remember the ride for them to get there was extremely bumpy.

They didn’t understand. They were threatened with death along the way. They were afraid. But they ultimately surrendered to God and trusted Him, even when it seemed impossible. Only one gave in to despair, the one who was unclean.

Stay steadfast and receive the sacraments of Confession and Eucharist sincerely and as often as you can so the sacramental grace can pour into you and God can fill you so as to crush Satan under your feet. Remember, God’s promises are true.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that one of the first miracles Peter

Keep your lamp lit and pray for Our Priests.

“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 THE ROLE OF WOMAN

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Nun Takes Charge At The Vatican Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

The Pope has appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini, a nun with three university degrees, to become the deputy governor of Vatican City.

The role has hitherto been held by bishops.

The appointment, according to Euronews, was made because “Pope Francis has repeatedly said he wants women to play a bigger role in the Catholic Church to achieve greater gender equality”.

In reality, one suspects the Pope appointed Sister Raffaella because she was far and away the bestqualified person to oversee the administration of the Vatican City, including the museums, the postal service and the police.

After all, there is nothing whatever in the ‘depositum fidei’ to the effect that women cannot hold senior positions in the administration of the Vatican.

Sister Raffaella’s task is a far from enviable one. She must somehow deal with the acute problem that now afflicts parishes, dioceses and the Holy See itself: the acute shortage of funds caused by the Chinese-virus pandemic.

Sister Raffaella Petrini - Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist

Astonishing though it may seem to the empty-headed nitwits who fall over themselves to demonstrate their head-banging, conformist, uniformitarian deference and obeisance to every new aspect of the party line, however manifestly nonsensical, men and women are in many respects somewhat different.

adherents so abjectly feebleminded that they will swallow even the most egregious fatuities.

As the French rightly say, Vive la difference! To demand “equality” for men with women is to deny that difference, and, therefore, to deny to men their manhood and to women their womanhood.

Francis Bacon wrote: “Walled towns, stored arsenals and the like be to no avail except the spirit of the people be stout and warlike.”

“Gender equality” is one of the many absurdities in wokery, the rebranded version of Communism now gripping the West (but sternly forbidden in the Communist countries where it was dreamed up as a way to weaken the West).

For instance, if a young male athlete wants to win races, these days all he has to do is to declare that he identifies himself as a woman, so that he can race against those who, by virtue of their gender, are on average nothing like as physically strong as he.

The Book of Genesis does not say, “Gender-equal created he them.” It says, “Male and female created he them.”

And that is the problem with wokery – or, rather, that is the end and object of wokery. It was crafted and is intended to render its hapless

Nothing so weakens the body politic as this deliberately organised and deeply malevolent undermining of the capacity for rational thought, particularly among the youth of the West.

John Stuart Mill put it still more trenchantly: “A State which dwarfs its men, so that they become mere docile instruments in its hands, will find that with small men no great thing can be accomplished.”

How on Earth can any sane observer imagine even for an instant that a man posing as a woman to defeat real women in a running-race or a wrestling bout can possibly be contributing to “gender equality”?

On the contrary, a man pretending to be a woman for personal advantage

3rd December 2021

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Catholic Voice

against them in sport is subjecting them to needless humiliation.

What, then, is the role of women in the Church? There are those who demand that women should become priests, bishops and even popes. I am often asked what I think of the “ordination” of women as priestesses and even bishopesses in the Church of England.

I reply that it is not for me to object, but that if the Church of England wishes to reunify itself with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church it should rethink such “ordinations”.

In the Church of England there is no particular reason to oppose the “ordination” of women, because in the Anglicanosphere the only doctrine is the doctrine that there is no doctrine. Please yourselves.

Anything goes. The doctrine that there is no doctrine is, of course, guaranteed to empty the churches, for if there is no doctrine there is nothing to set Anglicanism apart from secularism.

Which is why one was not surprised to see the Archbishop of Canterbury wafting around the climate-Communist conference in Glasgow dressed in a long, black cassock and looking like nothing so much as Darth Vader without his tin hat and laryngitis.

In the Catholic Church, however, anyone reading the ancient as well as modern documents that encapsulate the Church’s understanding of the Faith cannot but be struck by its remarkable self-consistency.

From age to age, though the practices of the Church may change, the fundamentals of the Faith of our Fathers do not change. They are strikingly immutable.

Among those powerfully continuous teachings is one of the first

importance: namely, that at the moment of consecration during the Mass the priest offers the ultimate sacrifice not merely in the name of Christ but in persona Christi. At that supreme moment, the priest is Christ.

In God there is no male or female, but in Christ there are two natures – the divine, in which there is no male or female, and the human, in which He was unquestionably male.

As the Council of Chalcedon splendidly puts it, He is “perfectly God and perfectly Man”. It is for this unassailable theological reason that in the Catholic Church a woman cannot be a priest, for a woman is not a man.

Holy Mary Holy Mother of God Holy Virgin of virgins Mother of Christ Mother of the Church Mother of divine grace Mother most pure Mother most chaste Mother inviolate Mother undefiled Mother most amiable Mother most admirable Mother of good counsel Mother of our Creator Mother of our Savior Virgin most prudent Virgin most venerable Virgin most renowned Virgin most powerful Virgin most merciful Virgin most faithful Mirror of justice Seat of wisdom Cause of our joy Spiritual vessel Vessel of honour

However, the fact that the Lord of Life, in His human nature, was a man does not in the least degree relegate women to secondary status in the Church. Very far from it.

Consider the Virgin Mary.

Specifically, consider the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is recited with great devotion at Knock and at Lourdes. In that Litany, all the splendidly pre-eminent qualities of womanhood are categorised, itemised and recounted.

The Queen of Heaven takes undeniable precedence over any mere male in the Church, save only for the Lord of Life Himself. The role of women in the Church is not less than that of men. It is higher.

Singular vessel of devotion Mystical rose Tower of David Tower of ivory House of gold Ark of the covenant Gate of heaven Morning star Health of the sick Refuge of sinners Comforter of the afflicted Help of Christians Queen of Angels Queen of Patriarchs Queen of Prophets Queen of Apostles Queen of Martyrs Queen of Confessors Queen of Virgins Queen of all Saints Queen conceived Without original sin Queen assumed into heaven Queen of Whe most holy Rosary Queen of families Queen of peace

20 AFRICAN CATECHISTS

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Responsibility Born From Faith Hope And Love Mary Kearns

It is quite a usual practice for Irish parishes to employ administrators and parish assistants to help with the running of the Church at a local level. While only a priest is authorised to administer a parish, along with words such as “chaplain” and “minister” the use of the term “administrator” is frequently and illegally used by lay-people. Usually this role is seen as satisfying the dual function of giving lay men and women a voice in the Church and also filling the gap caused by a decreased number of available priests.

These people are generally wellqualified in pastoral leadership and are able to command a salary commensurate with other professions. Part of their role entails providing services that are intended to bring about some degree of parish renewal and education. Additionally they frequently devise “liturgical celebrations” in the hope of making the liturgy more accessible and meaningful, particularly to the youth of the parish.

The reality is that despite much attention being given to programmes that are designed to make the Catholic Faith a greater and a more present reality, the success rate has not been remarkable. Although undoubtedly there are committed lay people who care about passing on the faith, we have to judge the situation by seeing how many young people actively participate in Church services and indeed, are even present at Mass on Sundays.

While there might be plenty of activity, actually teaching the doctrine of the Church is generally somewhat deficient.

Lay Catechist Photo SMA website

anywhere else in the world. What are Africans doing right? Should we not spend some time looking at the causes of the growth here, learning to follow systems where large numbers of men, women and babies are being baptised and where vocations to the priesthood are thriving?

Part of the trouble with most socalled western countries is that we think we know it all. This was perhaps acceptable when Christianity was synonymous with Europe. That is no longer the situation. The deplorable term “Post-Christian” could be applied to most European countries including Ireland, to our great shame. Yet the Church is flourishing in other lands.

Speaking in relation to Germany, his own country of origin, Pope Benedict related his sadness at what he called “professional Catholics” who are employed by the Church and make a living from their Catholicism but in whom “the spring of faith flows only faintly, in a few scattered drops.”

They however, are not without their problems. One difficulty for most African countries is that in many cases the Catholic population is located in hard-to-reach places known as out-stations. This is where the role of lay men and women is most effective and it is in no small part due to the deeply committed faith of these people that the Church in Africa has grown and continues to grow at such a rate.

We can learn much from Africa.

It is now well-documented that the Catholic Church is growing in this continent at a rate greater than

Let us take a look at the role of catechist and what it means. This role was described by a few African priests in response to a request for

information.

Fr. Godfrey Ocamringa serving in the diocese of Klerksdorp in South Africa, claims that lay people both men and women, play a vital role in evangelisation. “They prepare people for the reception of the sacraments, assist with funerals, offer Sunday services in the absence of a priest, take Holy Communion to the sick and animate devotional groups.”

Father Michel Simotemgo from Cameroon told us that his father was a catechist who did not earn a salary. It appears that the diocese does not employ catechists but the parish where they work gives some financial support. We remember how Jesus declared that “the labourer deserves his wages.” Lay catechists often volunteer their service free of charge.

We can gain more insight into this role by reading Ugandan priest Fr. Matthias Jjooga’s testimony.

“Any discourse on evangelisation in Africa, void of the role of catechists is unrealistic to say the least! It is very right to talk about the enormous work done by the missionaries in Africa which is indisputable! However, not mentioning the contribution of their obvious co-workers is to

3rd December 2021 keep a blind eye to the ministry of catechists. Catechists are not merely substitutes or people who are needed because priests are not there! No! Even in some dioceses where numbers of priests, religious men and women are increasing; for instance in Uganda, the role of catechists is indispensable. In fact, some religious women have embraced catechetical ministry in addition to the charisms of their religious institutes. There are religious sisters serving as catechists in Uganda, thanks to the missionaries in Africa who promoted catechetical ministry from the beginning.

Who is a catechist? Ideally a catechist is any baptised person involved in helping people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, educating, instructing and helping them to build up the Body of Christ (John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, no 1). In his homily during the Jubilee of catechists in Rome in 2000, Pope John Paul II described a catechist like John the Baptist. He said that the role of a catechist is to bring the people of God together, helping them to fix their gaze on Jesus. ‘Follow him alone, for he alone is the Teacher, the Lord and Saviour.’

In Africa, lay women and men have zealously and actively participated in the mission of the Church, serving as catechists.

First of all, catechetical ministry is fundamentally a vocation one embraces aware that it is God calling! Those who discern this calling are identifiable, express their desire to the local church leadership and are recommended for guidance.

Many times women and men (either single or married) first come out as volunteers assisting in the Church and gradually receive training in catechetical formation centres. In a number of countries in Africa, there are diocesan and regional catechetical formation centres.

Some offer courses for one year, others two years.

There are also on-going formation programs.

Catechists prepare people for sacraments; they are the link between the priests and the faith communities. In large pastoral areas, the faithful depend on the catechists to receive the Word of God (Service of the Word).

Catholic Voice

AFRICAN CATECHISTS 21

A catechist is in charge of small pastoral areas, normally known as sub-parishes or outstations where there are village chapels. Catechists are instrumental in preparing boys and girls for sacraments of initiation in both Catholic and public schools.

These catechists lead or conduct para-liturgical celebrations in the absence of priests. This is very common on Sundays, days of obligation and funerals. At the moment lay catechists do not distribute Holy Communion during these celebrations. Where it happens, it is very rare or there are few who are mandated!

is dynamic. Many people in Africa including bishops, priests, religious men and women proudly mention catechists as people who inspired or nurtured their faith from childhood.

In Africa, thanks to God, there are beatified and canonised catechists who bore witness to Christ to the point of shedding their blood. In Uganda, we have Blessed Daudi Okelo and Blessed Jildo Irwa who were martyred at the beginning of the 20th century as well as other Ugandan saints martyred earlier between 1885-1887. These are a great inspiration to many catechists and all faithful.”

What remains as a challenge to the ministry of the catechists is their remuneration! There is no uniform way of supporting the well-being of the catechists, as it is with other ministers in the Church. Nevertheless, there is always an arrangement for their support. For that matter, catechists are encouraged to have some job through which they earn a living.

There is always a consideration towards catechists in case of available church-funded income generating projects.

We, who believe that faith is caught rather than taught, mean that those who desire to pass it on must have the faith themselves. That is stating the obvious.

In short, catechetical ministry is not an option; rather it has been and will continue to be part and parcel of the evangelisation work.

This ministry must be appreciated everywhere. Through this ministry lay people actively participate in their baptismal calling. The impact of the work of catechists in Africa

Reading Pope John Paul II in Rise, Let us be on our Way we see through his eyes that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which of course is the manual of the catechist, was born out of a desire to make the language of faith more accessible to people today.

“Catechesis...gives priority to the human person and to personal encounter through signs and symbols of faith. Catechesis is always love and responsibility, a responsibility born of love for those whom we meet on our journey.”

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

The Martyrs Blessed Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa - Image Vatican.va

22 THE UNHOLY TRINITY

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Christians, Our True Battle Is Spiritual, Not Political Matt Walsh This week I published my book, The Unholy Trinity. The first few lines of the book — particularly the first sentence — have already sparked a fair amount of reaction: The first liberal was named Lucifer.

He was an angel. He lived in Heaven millennia ago, before modern times, before ancient times, before time itself. He could still be there today if that’s what he’d chosen, but in his absurd and insatiable pride he would not bend his knee to the supreme will of God. Non serviam. “I will not serve,” he said, wanting to love only himself.

Just like that, he and those who followed him were cast out of Paradise, down into the hideous depths of Hell, where he could reign over his pitiful kingdom of darkness. It was there, in the fires of damnation, that the philosophy of liberalism was born, although it wouldn’t be known by that name for many years. I’m telling a somewhat abbreviated version of the story, I realise.

It was this philosophy that led to the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptations of the serpent and attempted to make themselves equal to God. It was the philosophy behind every act of human evil throughout history, at the bottom of every atrocity. It’s the philosophy you would have found incubating in Sodom and Gomorrah amid the orgy of heathens, or in the Temple of Baal, where the pagans made human sacrifices as part of their barbaric fertility rituals and to ensure for themselves wealth and prosperity.

This philosophy has propelled all the great villains throughout history. It is the philosophy of Judas, of Nero, of Genghis Khan, of Adolf Hitler, of Hillary Clinton.

The specifics of what these people all believed, and how they framed it around the political circumstances of the day, isn’t terribly relevant, for they desired the same thing and worshipped the same god: the self.

What we call “liberalism” in public discourse today is really just the worship of self. It is the categorical belief in the supremacy of the individual...Of course, we all lapse into selfishness at times — I often provide proof of that — but those who affirm the ultimate primacy of the self all share the same ideology.

Their worship might manifest itself in different ways, but they’re all cut from the same cloth woven by the Devil himself eons ago.

that distinguishes the theological satanist from the secular satanist is that the latter follows Satan’s lead without acknowledging that he exists, which is, as far as Satan is concerned, the ideal situation.

I’m not just trying to be provocative here. This is a crucial point.

Christians must understand that it is the Devil himself we are battling, not just liberal politicians. What makes this thing we call “modern liberalism” so dangerous is that it is not modern at all.

The only real difference between the self-worshippers of today and those of the past is that our satanists are so vast in number, so organised, so embedded in our institutions, and, due to these facts, they’ve been able to take the principle of self-worship to incredible and insane lengths.

It is nothing but the contemporary manifestation of an ancient evil.

It is the current label we’ve given to the religion of self-worship, but this religion has existed on Earth ever since the fall of Man, and it originates with the very first being in the universe who decided to place himself above God.

This is what lies at the foundation of the war on life, marriage, and gender. Those who believe in the supremacy of the self refuse to be subject to any moral or scientific law. Everything must be relative to their emotions and whims. The goal of the self-worshipper is to live in a world where “because I want to” is an argument that overrides everything, including reality itself.

That’s why I use the term “secular satanism” to describe liberalism in the book. After all, satanism is the worship of self, not the worship of Satan. The only thing

Even those who’ve not been fully baptised into the religion of selfworship still have adopted many

3rd December 2021 of its tenets. This is especially evident in the church, where many Christians have spent decades methodically combing through Scripture and disqualifying every teaching or edict or commandment that infringes too severely on their lifestyle.

Some churches have made it so far into this process that now they’ve fallen entirely into the hands of Satan. Take, for instance, the churches that send pastors out to bless abortion clinics, and those that now ordain “transgender” pastors.

Make no mistake: these are not Christian churches. They do not worship Christ at all. These are Satanic shrines; temples to the Self.

If Christ were on Earth in physical form, he would walk into these churches with a whip and rip them apart.

Catholic Voice And with the Religion of Self infecting even the Church, it should be no surprise that “conservatism” — whatever it is, exactly — has fared no better. There are many who claim to be on our side, who are even paid to speak for our side, but who believe, ultimately, that all of our rights and liberties originate from within ourselves.

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 23 There are really only two sides to the culture war: those who deny God and put the Self in His place, and those who submit to the authority of He who created all things, and subjugate themselves to that authority.

They may agree with us about certain rights or taxes or whatever, but only out of self-interest, not out of any recognition of an inherent human dignity bestowed upon us by the Creator. They start from the same premise as the liberal, but they reach slightly different conclusions.

What we call “liberalism” is the organised and intentional effort to move the culture into the former camp. The leader of this movement is not any politician or MSNBC host, but the Devil of Hell. He is the one we fight and struggle against, and it is his agenda our opponents advance. We should never lose sight of that.

And we assume that because some of their conclusions are the same as ours, somehow we must be on the same side. We aren’t. Whatever common ground we share is purely incidental.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

24 CONSCIENCE & VACCINES

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

CONSCIENCE AND VACCINES - Part 1 Fr Ambrose Astor

Ethical considerations surrounding vaccines have been debated for some time. It is a hot subject today, as many of the COVID-19 vaccines use stem cells from aborted babies. Father Ambrose answers essential questions on this important topic.

Q. Is it true that COVID-19 vaccines are created using organs of aborted infants?

A. When we first heard about the experimentation on human embryos and foetuses many years ago, most of us were incredulous. Some still are. It is difficult to imagine the perversion of the human heart which justifies the use of vital organs of infants, even if the intention is to help others. To use another human being is nothing less than to instrumentalise that person, to turn them into an object to be used and discarded like a dirty rag. This is a grave thing to do to anyone, but the sin is compounded and increases in gravity when that person is innocent and defenceless. Even if we had used the body of only one infant that was spontaneously aborted, it would be a grave injustice.

The Eugenics movement which dawned in the 1920s oversaw the forced institutionalisation and sterilisation of the ‘feeble-minded’ and made medical experimentation on human beings ‘acceptable’1.

Following this and well into the 1970s, organ harvesting on live foetuses of gestational ages of 3-4 months was not uncommon.2

You wouldn’t murder me And take my organs to make a vaccine.

So why is it OK to take vaccines Which were made using the organs Of my murdered unborn Brothers and Sisters?

To grasp the gravity of the use of aborted foetal cells in the medical field, it is necessary to be aware of the steps required to arrive at a ‘successful’ outcome. The sanitised idea that the development of the cells came from one female infant in 1973 in a wholly isolated incident is misleading, for the very nature of the scientific method involves performing experiments repeatedly until a successful outcome is achieved.

The currently available COVID-19 vaccines utilise foetal stem cells (a parent cell that can keep reproducing) in either their production (by using them as a container to culture the viruses) and/or in their testing (the vaccines are then tested on these cells to elicit safety and response on a cellular level). The majority of foetal stem cells are of the HEK-293 cell line (HEK stands for Human Embryonic Kidney, and 293 indicates the number of experiments required prior to the successful isolation of the cell line). The workbook of the scientist for HEK-293 is not public, so the true number of foetuses used has not been confirmed. It is thought to be likely to be over 100 when compared to similar cell lines. For example, there were numerous

foetuses used in the extraction of the cell line denoted by the number -38 (WI-38)3 and 9 foetuses in the lead-up to the development of a cell line denoted by the number -2 (walvax-2).

Another misconception is that organs are salvaged after the abortion. Although this is in itself a heinous crime, the harvesting of organs for medical research is far more premeditated. The following is an excerpt from a 2015 publication in a medical journal regarding the development of a new foetal cell line (walvax-2): ‘The foetal material was provided by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Yunnan Hospital, with legal and ethical agreements from the donator. Before the study, we made strict and comprehensive inclusion criteria in order to guarantee a high-quality cell strain: 1.) gestational age 2 to 4 months; 2.) induction of labour with the water bag method; 3.) the parent’s career should not involve contact with chemicals and radiation; 4.) both parents are in good health without neoplastic and genetic diseases, and with no history

3rd December 2021 of human tissue or organ transplantation in the families traced for 3 generations; and 5.) no infectious diseases. The tissues from the freshly aborted foetuses were immediately sent to the laboratory for the preparation of the cells.’4 In simple language: several infants of a gestational age of 2-4 months were screened, picked for their gender, race and pristine medical history. The date of the abortion is chosen, labour is induced, organs are extracted while the child is alive (denoted by the word ‘fresh’), then transported. The cause of death is the removal of the organs by vivisection. The method described above in 2015 is virtually unchanged from the method of organ harvesting in 1952.5 In a university application for $2.3 million funding for foetal harvesting in 2016, the method used to guarantee the ‘freshness’ of foetal kidneys is described: ‘Labour induction will be used to obtain the tissue. We record the warm ischaemic time on our samples and take steps to keep it at a minimum to ensure the highest quality biological specimens. We get feedback from our users and utilize this feedback to tailor our collection processes on a case-bycase basis to maximize the needs of investigators.’6 The expression ‘warm ischaemic time’ refers to the time that the organ remains at body temperature after its blood supply has been cut.7 In simple language, this refers to the foetus being delivered alive, and the organs extracted with no anaesthesia while the heart is still beating and blood is circulating.

This part is crucial to ensure viability of the organs.

In any court of law, a crime that used such methods would be called pre-meditated mass murder and torture. It cries to Heaven for vengeance. It is so grave that no reason whatsoever can ever justify it. Up to here, it is to be hoped that all those who bear the name of Christian will be in agreement.

It is a clear violation of the Fifth Commandment, Thou shalt not kill.

What’s more, Church teaching has consistently and systematically condemned abortion, in all its forms – whether therapeutic or for science. Pope Pius XII, in his

Catholic Voice famous address to midwives, left no doubt about the matter: ‘The life of an innocent person is sacrosanct, and any direct attempt or aggression against it is a violation of one of the fundamental laws without which secure human society is impossible. … Never forget this: there rises above every human law and above every “indication” the faultless law of God’.8 Q. Agreed, but the baby was going to be aborted anyway. Once it’s dead, can’t we use its body?

A. There is only one moral thing to do with all these body remains, and that is to bury them with dignity and honour as having been the body of an immortal soul. Any use of these remains, for any reason whatsoever, is a grave violation of the moral law. It is not permissible to perform any kind of experiment on these remains, even under the pretext of saving other lives. It is grievously offensive to God to allow the performance of any such experiment, for such a sin is comparable to cannibalism, which is the use of human flesh for the purpose of nourishing other human flesh.

Pope John Paul II made it clear that experimentation on human beings is wrong: ‘No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.

This evaluation of the morality of abortion is to be applied also to the recent forms of intervention on human embryos which, although carried out for purposes legitimate in themselves, inevitably involve the killing of those embryos. This is the case with experimentation on embryos, which is becoming increasingly widespread in the field of biomedical research and is legally permitted in some countries…. [T] he use of human embryos or foetuses as an object of experimentation constitutes a crime against their dignity as human beings who have a right to the same respect owed to a child once born, just as to every person. This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and foetuses – sometimes specifically “produced” for this purpose by in vitro fertilisation – either to be used as “biological material” or

CONSCIENCE & VACCINES 25 as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act’.9 Q. But isn’t the situation different with the medicines and vaccines that have already been produced from those stem cells, after the fact?

A. The Holy See has addressed this question on a number of occasions, the most recent being in December 2020, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a ‘Note on the morality of using some anti-COVID-19 vaccines’ (hereafter referred to simply as ‘Note’).10 Basing itself on the principle that such an action would not be a participation in the sin of abortion, but only a form of cooperation that is passive, material and remote, the Note declares such cooperation to be licit, on certain conditions. These conditions, as we shall see, have been largely overlooked if not completely ignored.

(The next part of this article will look at the necessary conditions that would have to exist before one could co-operate with the evil involved in producing covid-19 vaccines) Footnotes: 1. Cf. Adam Cohen, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, Penguin Books, 2017.

2. For example, Dr. Robert Schwartz, chief of pediatrics at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, - San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1973, entitled “Operations on Live Fetuses”.

3. ‘One my duties in the laboratory in Stockholm was to dissect human fetuses from legal abortions and send organs to the Wistar Institute. Such material was the source of many important studies of cell lines at the Institute, such as Hayflick’s study of WI-38 cells.’

Erling Norrby, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 44.2 (Spring 2001): 304–306.

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC4526020/ 5. ‘Human embryos of two and one-half to five months gestation were placed in a sterile container and promptly transported to the virus laboratory of the adjacent Hospital for Sick Children. No macerated specimens were used and in many of the embryos the heart was still beating at the time of receipt in the virus laboratory.’ 1952-06; Thicke et al; Cultivation of Poliomyelitis Virus in Tissue Culture; Growth of the Lansing Strain in Human Embryonic Tissue, Canadian Journal of Medical Science, Vol. 30, p231-245 . https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/ cjms52-031.

6. Grant Number 1U24DK11079-1 awarded by NIH to University of Pittsburgh, p62, p73 – accessible at https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2021/08/ aborted-infants-continued-blood-flow-advertised-inracist-university-of-pittsburgh-grant-application-tonih/ 7. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/ cancer-terms/def/warm-ischemia-time 8. Pope Pius XII, Allocution to Midwives, October 29, 1951.

9. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, 25 March 1995, no. 62-63.

10. Previous declarations include:“Moral Reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses” from the Pontifical Academy for Life (2005 ), the Instruction Dignitas Personae from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2008), and finally another declaration from the PAL in 2017.

26 CATHOLIC RSE - PART 2

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

Relationship And Sexuality Education In Catholic Schools 2021 Serving Two Masters? - Part 2 Mary Russell - A Catholic Mother The 2021 Northern Ireland Bishops’ RSE Guidance In the introduction and elsewhere in the document, there is a strong determination to foster “important values like inclusion, respect and care” and again, “Any behaviour which undermines someone’s dignity is completely unacceptable.” The document further emphasises that schools should ensure that “Any form of marginalisation, harassment, bullying or disrimination on grounds of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation is not consistent with the Christian vision of the human person as a child of God’.

Even at this early stage it is clear that the scene is set for conflict and difficulty. These clashes arise when an attempt is made to weave the secular approach to human sexuality into a sex-education programme suitable for Christian schools.

Nowhere does the conflict manifest itself more strikingly than with the LGBTQ advances in almost every area of life, including education.

It is impossible to ignore Pride Month, homosexual and lesbian sex scenes and themes are common in literature, in TV programmes, films, drama and the Arts.

Sports authorities are grappling with the question of whether or not Transgender females can compete in women’s sports. There can be no doubt the powerful LGBTQ movement is promoting a range of lifestyles which are in direct conflict with Christian teaching.

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.

It is only a forthright and firm adherence to Catholic faith and morals, a condition that would be made known to and understood by parents, that would act as a defence against such likely clashes.

The Northern Ireland school’s freedom to set their own agenda is recognised and confirmed in the following determination ...

“Department or Education Northern Ireland circular2013/16 states that RSE “should be taught in harmony with the ethos of the school and reflect the moral and religious principles held by parents, and the school management authorities.”

The Northern Irish bishops’ ‘Rationale for Teaching RSE in a Catholic School’ re-iterates the Department of Education’s emphasis that the values inherent in the school’s RSE programme should be consistent with the core values and ethos of the school.

Article 2 of the First Protocol of the Europen convention on Human Rights states in relation to the ‘Right to Education’, “In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the rights of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions”.

One Northern Irish bishop, in a letter to a parishioner in July 2021, said, ‘that it is better to talk about these delicate issues in a faith context even when we face opposition’,.

Yet the assurances given in RSE suggest the favoured approach is to avoid opposition at all costs.

A further example of the contradictory nature in RSE is where the programme quotes from The Congregation for The Doctrine of The Faith.

“In fact, it is from [their] sex that the human person receives the characteristics which, on the biological, psychological and spiritual levels, make that person a man or a woman...” (CDF Persona Humana 1975) This most basic concept is already under attack from every anti-family cohort in the world. There can be few who are not already familiar with slogans such as ‘Gender is a social construct’ and claims that it is possible to seamlessly slip between several identities even on an hourly basis.

The 2021 Northern bishops’ guidance advises, quoting from DENI circular 2013/16, pupils should “not be treated any less favourably on the grounds of their actual or perceived sexual orientation.”

Already there is much concern over the influence of transgender activists. The number of children and young people who identify as ‘being in the wrong body’ is increasing at an alarming rate, and even the very young are now led to believe they can change sex. Some doctors have warned —

3rd December 2021

CATHOLIC RSE - PART 2 27

Catholic Voice

“To halt the natural process of puberty is an intervention of momentous proportions with lifelong medical, psychological and emotional implications.”

(Richards, Maxwell, McCune, 2018) Yet the authors of RSE, in their rush to ‘accompany and support’ those ‘struggling to find themselves’ seem ignorant of this impending clash between Church teaching and the Sex Education Movement There is a somewhat vague acknowledgement, a mere whisper, of what may like ahead by stating, “schools need to ensure that each young person is protected and supported in a way which not only affirms individual uniqueness but also balance this with too equal rights of other young people.”

Without an unapologetic and positive presentation of traditional Catholic Church teaching such as, “And God created man to

his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27), schools will find themselves defenceless against persistent efforts to accommodate the demands of the transgender movement.

If a biological schoolboy identifies as gender fluid and;or female, and demands access to the girls toilets/changing rooms or shared sleeping quarters (While on school trips) shall the school refer to RSE guidance and “offer support to pupils who are facing questions relating to sexual identity, these pupils are loved unconditionally

by God and should be loved by their schools’.

To which group shall the love and support flow? To the girls who do not want to share facilities with boys, or to the boys who want access to female spaces?

The Northern bishops’ document is peppered

LIBERALISM IS A SIN

Don Félix Sardà y Salvany: – was

RSE with

ambiguous statements and naive undertakings that provide no counter-measures to the advances of the LGBTQ lobby groups.

Schools cannot present children and young people with a menu of equally legitimate sexual options.

Not all sexual practices are equally healthy and therefore not all sexual practices merit equal respect, yet the document maintains that it is possible to promote Catholic values and virtues while simultaneously embracing a non-discriminatory and inclusive programme promising that “Teachers responsible for delivering the programme should however acknowledge that many young people come from backgrounds that do not reflect such values and experiences. Sensitivity is therefore needed to avoid causing hurt and offence to them and their families and to encourage the development of their sense of worth” to be cont’d...

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 LOVE THE CHURCH

Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

To Love the Church

Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. Sometimes it’s difficult to love the Roman Catholic Church. With her seemingly never-ending sexual and financial scandals, we not only can become disheartened by and cynical about the Church’s present state; we can also become angry at her apparent inability to reform. But there’s a deeper reason for concern. Many Catholics today give the impression that they do not love the Church, not because of her sinful members, but because they do not like the Church as she has traditionally been.

They find her doctrines antiquated – dead dogmas from the past, whose suffocating presence stifles authentic renewal. Likewise, they find the Church’s traditional moral teaching – especially concerning marriage and sexuality – rigid, merciless laws and inflexible canons that do not allow people to be “who they truly are.”

Such laws, they believe, shackle men’s and women’s freedom, and their inherent right to choose what is best for them. To them, the Church’s moral tenets simply foster a guilt-ridden, unhappy life. Such a Church cannot be loved. To be loved, they believe, the Church must change at the deepest levels of her being. And

HANDS OFF OUR KIDS

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those who are awake in the Spirit are called to use their political and financial might to ensure that such change is enacted.

When praying in the derelict church of San Damiano, St. Francis of Assisi heard the crucified Jesus speak to him: “Francis, go, repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruins.” Francis, in his simple innocence, began to pick up stones and rebuild this church and others. Only later did he realize that it was the Church itself, the Body of Christ, that needed spiritual rebuilding.

So, what did Francis do? Did he set out to change the Church’s doctrinal and moral teaching, culminating in the rejection of the Church herself? This is, after all, what some “renewal movements” within the Church of his day were proposing. No. Francis, as a faithful son of the Church, knew that she could be repaired only if the life-giving truth of her doctrines once more became the stones upon which she is built. Thus, Francis, in word and deed, brought to life within the Church these mysteries of faith.

The Incarnation was the foundational doctrine of his preaching. The Son of God actually came to exist as man within the womb of Mary. He became poor in our humanity so that we might become rich in his divinity.

And what better way to manifest this awesome truth than to enact it? And so he did. He re-enacted the manger scene in the hill-town of Greccio. Surrounded by sheep, cows, and donkeys, the Incarnation came alive. For the infant Jesus, the son of Mary and the eternal Son of the Father, is said to have appeared in Francis’s arms.

Peoples’ lives were transformed. They heeded the call to repentance of sin and to faith in their Savior. Once more they became living stones in Christ’s Church.

If the Incarnation was foundational to Francis’s enterprise of rebuilding the Church, his love for Jesus crucified became the capstone. On the Cross, the poor Jesus offered up his holy and sinless life for the forgiveness of sin, and so merited his glorious resurrection. In this twofold act, Jesus, through the blood and water that poured forth from his pierced side, gave birth to his holy and pure bride – the Church.

Francis, for the sake of this same bride, the same Church, laid down his life, to make her holy once more.

The stigmata, the physical marks of nails and spear, is not simply a sign that Francis was the living likeness of the crucified Jesus, but more so that he, in imitation of Jesus, completely offered up himself for the sake

3rd December 2021

Catholic Voice

LOVE THE CHURCH 29

of the Church’s renewal. As Christ is the everlasting, loving, crucified-spouse of his Church, so Francis was the loving crucified-spouse of the Church in his day.

While the false claimants of renewal despised the fleshly sacraments, Francis gloried in their materiality.

For matter manifested the glory of God: Brother sun and sister moon, brother fire and sister water. The Eucharist, the most material of all of the sacraments, was Francis’s greatest joy. The bread itself and the wine itself were changed into the risen-flesh and risenblood of the bodily-risen-Jesus.

Thus, one came into living bodily communion with living bodily-Jesus himself. The poverty of our flesh is enriched by Jesus’ risen-flesh – a mutual abiding unto eternal life. For Francis, the Eucharist was not an obsolete doctrine, but the source and summit of the Church’s life.

Within the context of these truth-bearing and life-giving doctrines, Francis would exhort the people of his day to repent of their sins and live holy lives. Francis did not see the Church’s moral teaching as rigid decrees that were impossible to keep. Rather, as he experienced in his own life, Francis knew that believing in the Lord Jesus and keeping his commandments, as professed by the Church, leads to Spirit-filled freedom, holiness, and happiness.

Francis recognised, in the light of his youthful folly, that to argue that the Church’s moral teaching must change is to offer the world death – a life of torment here on earth and everlasting agony in Hell. Francis, in his sacrificial love, desired to repair Jesus’ Church, to make her a sanctuary of light and life in a world darkened by sin and death.

It’s hard to love today’s shabby Church. Nonetheless, the words that the crucified Jesus spoke to Francis echo in our ears: “Repair my Church, which, as you see, has fallen into ruins.” Francis and all the saints are our examples. We are not to build a “new church” founded upon the deceitful lies of Satan. Rather, we are to rebuild Jesus’ ancient yet ever new Church, a temple built with the living stones of true apostolic doctrine, the mysteries of faith that foster holiness of life.

To do so is to love the bride of Christ – Jesus’ espoused Church.

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

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

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

(Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

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Catholic Voice

3rd December 2021

PRAYER

Prayer to The Little Flower Oh glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and council mankind, I implore your miraculous intercession. So powerful are you in obtaining every need of body and soul, our Holy Mother Church proclaims you a “prodigy of miracles; the greatest saint of modern times.”

Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention here) and to carry out your promise of “spending Heaven doing good upon earth - letting fall from Heaven a shower of Roses.” Henceforth, dear little flower, I will fulfil your plea “to be made known everywhere” and I will never cease to lead others to Jesus through you. Amen.

Cry of the Innocent Unborn from Psalm 18

CatholicVoice

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

I call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise; He saves me from my enemies.

Torrents rushed at me in a destroying flood Caught as by the cords of the grave, I was utterly helpless before the snares of death.

But I called upon the Lord in my distress, I cried to my God for help; And from his temple he heard my voice, My cry of grief reached his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked; The foundations of the mountains shook; They trembled at his fury From heaven the Lord thundered; The voice of the Most High resounded The beds of the seas appeared, The foundations of the world were bared at the rebuke of the Lord, At the blast of his breath.

Reaching down from above, He drew me out of the deep waters. ( Psalm 18:4-17)

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3rd December 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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(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.

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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 3pm. 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.

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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.

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3rd December 2021

His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.

(John 2:5)

Notwithstanding jesuit syncretism the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by His Holiness Pope Francis and his brother priests, be it ‘ad orientem’ or ‘versus populum’, “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to day; and the same forever” abides as the unique ‘Mysterium Fidei’ expression as Christ Himself, in both rites, as Christ’s actual Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity and as corroborated, respectively, by the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano in Italy in 750 AD and the Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1996:

www.miracolieucaristici.org

Please include Pope Francis in your daily 1917 Fatima Holy Rosary intentions

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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