Catholic Voice 20th May 2022 Issue 343

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Issue 343

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2 EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

The Eucharistic Miracle of the Island of Reunion On January 26, 1902, at the parish church of Saint-André, a city on the island of La Réunion, Abbot Henry Lacombe, pastor of the church, was witness to the miracle that he would recount to thousands of people during the Eucharistic Congress of Angouleme (1904), as well as to the group of priests gathered for a spiritual retreat in the town of Perigueux. The Face of Jesus appeared in the Host which was for many hours witnessed by thousands of people.

face. The eyelashes were long and thick. I tried not to let on to the presence of the turmoil agitating inside of me.

Abbott Lacombe gave this report: “It was January 26, 1902. We were celebrating Perpetual Adoration.

The Most Holy Sacrament was exposed in the tabernacle.

A young man of 16, Adam de Villiers, who had studied in a college in France, also arrived. I said to him as well: ‘Go in the church and see if you notice something strange in the Tabernacle.’

I began to celebrate the Mass.

After the elevation, at the moment of the Our Father, my eyes were lifted toward the Host and I saw a bright halo around the rays of the monstrance.

I continued to recite the prayers of the Mass with great agitation in my soul but which I tried to overcome. We came to the moment for Communion and again I looked toward the monstrance. This time I saw a human face, with lowered eyes and a crown of thorns on the forehead.

What moved me the most was the dolorous expression painted on the

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After Mass, I went to the sacristy and summoned the older children from the choir to go to the altar and closely observe the monstrance.

The children raced back and told me, ‘Father, we see the head of a man in the host. It is the good Lord revealing Himself!’

The young student went to the sacristy and returned immediately, saying: ‘Father, it is the good Lord who appears in the Host. I see His divine face.’ Since then, all my doubts disappeared. Slowly the entire town went to the church to see the miracle.

Journalists and people from the capital of St. Denis also arrived.

The face on the Host suddenly became animated and the crown of thorns disappeared. I used every possible precaution, and fearing the effects from the rays of light, I had all the candles extinguished and the shutters closed.

The phenomenon became even more clear. There was a young artist among the visitors who faithfully reproduced the face in the Host.

Later, the vision changed again and a crucifix appeared which covered the entire Host from top to bottom.

After the Eucharistic blessing and recital of the Tantum Ergo, the vision disappeared.”

A second example of the Face of Christ on a Host, which has been recently under investigation, occurred on November 15, 2013 at Christ the King Parish in Kerala, India.

The Face of Christ appeared on the Host as the pastor, Rev. Fr. Thomas Pathickal, was saying the morning Mass. According to Christ the King Parish Vilakkannur website “A Theological Commission of the Syro-Malabar Church made a detailed study of the miraculous incident as per the guidelines of the Holy See and declared that the Eucharist is a Relic of Divinity.”

The archbishop also asked the parish to document “signs and supernatural” occurrences resulting from the alleged Eucharistic miracle. The International Theological Commission also studied the host, saying the Church could approve the miracle.

It was Pope St. John Paul II who first used the phrase, “Eucharistic Face of Christ,” which was previously unknown in the Church.

Pope St. John Paul II, by dedicating the millennium to the Face of Christ, drew back the veil for us, so that like disciples on the road to Emmaus, who recognised Jesus in the “breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:30-32), we too, may seek, find and adore His Face present and

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EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES 3

hidden in the Eucharist where we may gaze on Him freely in faith.

“May, O Lord, the light of Thy Face shine upon us.”

These words were the inspiration for Pope St. John Paul II to place the third Millennium under “the radiant sign of the Face of Christ.”

He emphasized the importance of contemplation of the Face of Christ by stating: “And it is the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His face shine also before the generations of the new millennium. Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated His Face.” One way to do so is by contemplating His Holy Face in His Presence in the Eucharist.

At the age eleven Blessed Carlo Acutis wrote, “The more we receive the Eucharist, the more we become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.” A miracle was recently approved in the cause for his sainthood, and this led to his beatification on 10th October 2020, at 4 pm — in the presence of his parents and siblings.

Blessed Carolo Acutis, pray for us.

Saint-André De La Réunion Ancient print of the Eucharistic Miracle

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4 THE VISITATION

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

5 Anti Catholic Features of our Post Modernist Culture Dr. Michael J. Baglino

Allow me to summarize insights from Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, ‘Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World’, 2017, a summary of which appeared in the last issue.

solution to all problems. 19th century Sociologist, Max Weber was the pioneer in the theoretical understanding of the bureaucratic proclivity, expansion and control. The above leaders today help fulfill that bureaucratic purpose.

Mission of the deep state.

There are five major features of contemporary western culture: the social sciences, anti-liberal education, the role of government, a secularized student population, and a ubiquitous malice wrapped up in a language of tolerance and rights.

Fourthly, it has been recognized that university life is probably the most secularizing influence in our culture.

A concrete and articulate moral system seems to have disappeared, along with the development of a robust fear of the future. The need to get things under control hurries the concomitant belief in big government and political correctness as the solution. Wokeness resembles Maoism and the Cambodian Khmner Rouge in their quest to erase traditional morality and history altogether.

Firstly, sociologists and psychologists have become a new priestly class, no longer communicating as objective scientists but rather serving to sustain bureaucratic authority of the secular state. A vehicle for social control, secular psychology and neo-Marxist sociology are their tools preaching a new morality helping to maintain their control. [of course after the anarchy they promote] Secondly, it contradicts the notion of education as a purpose for enlarging the human spirit and soul, fostering the love of things other than self and forming mature adults. Post modernist culture and ideology on the other hand serves toward the blind trust of technology. This is the foundation of progressive intellectual conformism: cogs in the bureaucratic government and economic machine. Technology becomes both the motivating and controlling force of the culture.

Administrative power thus becomes the third feature, the bureaucratic state. Bigger government is offered as the

Finally, the so-called progressive culture of our universities and media erases dissent and humiliates those thinking outside their box. They rewrite history, silence different views and suggest a more enlightened world view. Just ask this culture of themselves – we are wonderful and liberal progressives, so they say, yet all wrapped up in their own malice and deliberate spite. The enlightened light of Lucifer, I’d say.

Nowhere in this post modern ideology is anything resembling the Christian view of natural law and dignity.

This is exacerbated by the call for the breakdown of the nuclear family by various left wing sectors. Combined with the preference of entitlement over responsibility, current trends fly in the face of our Catholic social justice traditions and beliefs.

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RALLY FOR LIFE 5

6 THE DAILY EXAMEN

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Ignatian Daily Examen: A Sure Bridge To Holiness Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

Saint Ignatius of Loyola insisted on never neglecting the Daily Examen. For no reason whatsoever would this great saint justify skipping over and neglecting this all-important prayer. Starting now, why not make a proposal to make your own personal Daily Examen. If done, the fruits are countless and the blessings copious from such a tool, an indispensable tool to erect a solid structure for a life of authentic holiness.

In this brief article we will highlight and briefly explain the five classical steps of making the Daily Examen.

Then, as a means for motivation, we will highlight some of the blessings that will descend upon you in your spiritual life.

If you read through essays, writings, articles and even books on this topic, the order and words vary, but the concept never changes. The key element is that the Daily Examen should be proposed by all those with good will and put into practice.

The Five Classical Steps for the Ignatian Daily Examen: 1. Recall the Presence of God All authentic prayer starts with calling to mind the allabiding Presence of God. We are never far from God,

and God is never far from us! Saint Paul, quoting the Greek poet, expresses it as such: “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Therefore, start your Daily Examen by gently calling to mind the all-abiding, all-permeating presence of God. God is present in all times, all places, all circumstances, and all events. Even when our life seems to be a dark night of the soul, God is as present as the sun shining at midday! Add to this that our God is a loving Father who always desires what is best for His children. Therefore, we should respond with trust, confidence, and love.

2. Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good; His Love Endures Forever (Ps 136:1) Saint Ignatius insists on the importance of gratitude.

We should all cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Saint Ignatius states that the very essence of sin is ingratitude — a lack of rendering to God a heartfelt thanks! In all humility, every gift that we have in our life — intellectual, athletic, artistic, spiritual, supernatural, etc. — all are gifts from the Father of all gifts.

Therefore, rewind the film of your life since your last Daily Examen to see what you have been gifted with and allow your heart to expand in an overflowing act of thanksgiving. In a word, all that we have (except our sins — those we wilfully chose and God allowed) are gratuitous gifts from our all-bountiful Heavenly Father.

Indeed, God loves a grateful heart and He is ready and willing to shower thankful hearts with more and more blessings! How much Jesus suffered when after healing ten lepers, only one came back to pay Him thanks!

3. Beg God to Send the Holy Spirit to See Yourself as God Sees You In your Daily Examen beg for the Gift of Gifts, the Holy Spirit to shed light on your intellect, to help you rewind your past block of time — your past day to see the totality of how you lived that day. Humility is truth, and you want to beg in all honestly to see what you have done in the past day, but even beyond your exterior actions, you want to beg for the grace to see your interior intentions. We should never forget that man sees the surface, the mere exterior, but God can read our hearts and even our most hidden intentions.

4. Gratitude and Repentance During the Examen, as pointed out above, most likely you will become aware of God’s incredible goodness and His many gifts to you in the past day; give thanks again to God for His blessings. However, in all sincerity and truth the Holy Spirit will also point out some of your thoughts, words and actions, and even some intentions, that were off the mark and not pleasing to God. Only God is perfect and the Bible teaches us that the just man falls seven times a day. Be aware of these moral failures and beg for forgiveness.

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THE DAILY EXAMEN 7

Catholic Voice

5. Resolution, Reconciliation, and Renewal The last step points to the future.

With a keen awareness of God’s infinite love for us and His infinite goodness in giving us so much, but also aware of our own human weakness, we propose to love God more every day starting right now, and to avoid any person, place, thing or circumstance that can lead us off the path of true discipleship of the Lord. In other words, the Daily Examen heightens our awareness and self-knowledge and this can serve as preventive medicine. If we know where the pitfall is in our path, we can sidestep it, jump over it, or walk a different path. The desert Fathers insist on this twoword axiom: know thyself.

Now the benefits of practicing the Daily Examen, which are incalculable. We will mention only three: 1. Constant Awareness of God and Prayer If the Daily Examen is done faithfully, that is to say, on a daily basis, with hard work and good will, we become even more aware of God’s loving presence in our lives. God is not some distant, ethereal, mythical figure of the past! In our daily Examen, He becomes all the more real to us.

In truth, we are never alone! God became man, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for our sins, and rise to eternal life. It is to this life that He calls us. If you like, He will become your Best Friend, always at your side. He wants you to share every moment of your existence with Him. By doing this, we will sin less. Saint Teresa of Avila asserts that one of the primary reasons for sin is becoming oblivious to the all abiding Presence of God. 2. Avoid Pitfalls With a more acute awareness of the intentions and movements of our heart, which is like a garden that has both beautiful flowers and ugly weeds, we can avoid giving in to our bad tendencies. When the bad spirit is knocking at the door of our heart, we must close the door with lock

and key. Many sins are committed due to weakness of the will, but also due to ignorance of who is knocking at our door. The Daily Examen heightens our awareness of the tactics of the enemy, as well as self-knowledge of our weaknesses, two key components for growth in holiness!

3. Compassion Toward Others The Daily Examen is like shining a floodlight on our heart, our soul, and the inner workings of our conscience. We become aware of how good and loving God really is. However, with a penetrating awareness, we become cognisant of how weak we really are at times, and how prone to slip and fall into

the mire of our own sinfulness.

This keen self-knowledge can help us to be more kind, patient, and compassionate with our struggling brothers and sisters. If God is patient with us, how much more must we be patient with others!

God allows what is evil to bring greater good from the evil – charity being the greatest good of all.

To conclude, determine now to make the daily Examen Prayer. It shouldn’t take more than 15 to 20 minutes. If you miss a day, begin again, start back up the very next day. In doing so, you will sin less, your friendship with Christ will grow, and you will find more peace and joy in your life.

The

Dominicans Truth has no Expiry Date!

"The Gospel bears fruit whenever the community of believers hears and welcomes the Word of God in Truth and lives in charity."

- Pope Benedict XVI

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8 CATHOLIC PARENTAL DUTIES

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

The Crucial Duty Of A Catholic Parent A Priest Lays Out What The Church Requires Fr. Gabriel Lickteig

As a priest, I can say that one of the great events of the year is administering Holy Communion to children for the first time.

I make this heartfelt appeal to you as guardians of the Lord’s sheep – to buck certain trends that are repeated year after year in the Church.

I would like to take a few moments for deeper reflection on what the Lord asks us to do for these children that God entrusts to our care.

I fervently pray that your child’s first Holy Communion is not their last. I fervently pray that when they receive the Bread of Life, we do everything in our power as guardians and protectors to keep them alive – not just physically, but spiritually.

These children, who bring joy to our families and to the Church, are the Lord’s sheep. He cares about them deeply; He shed His Blood for them.

As a matter of fact, there is a deep tie between the Lord’s sheep and the Eucharist.

When Our Lord multiplied the loaves of bread for the 5,000 in John’s Gospel, there was a “great deal of grass” in the place the people reclined before he fed them.

No detail in Scripture is recorded by sheer coincidence.

St. John was likely alluding to Psalm 23, the great and famous Psalm about the Good Shepherd, where it states “he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”

When a child receives the Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist for the first time, this is ordered primarily to keep them alive spiritually, so that they might forever enjoy the company of the Good Shepherd.

In order to do this, it is necessary to restate the Church’s position on one of the bare minimums Our Lord asks of us: attend Mass every Sunday. The Catechism more precisely specifies this precept of the Church: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite, either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.

I must stress, however, that even though attending Sunday Mass is the bare minimum, deliberately neglecting this is both a grave sin and a scandal:

“The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor.

“Scandal is an attitude or behaviour which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbour’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death.

Scandal is a grave offence if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.” (CCC 2284)

“Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”

(CCC 2180-2181)

As for Our Lord’s attitude towards little ones and scandal, He could not be clearer:

Dear parents, please note the Church considers this “the foundation…of all Christian practice.” Without a strong foundation, surviving with our faith and souls intact will be hard.

“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

(Matt. 18:6)

Secondly, (and I cannot stress this enough), the parents’ example is the greatest impetus for children in keeping the faith. Parents are the giants and heroes whom the Lord provides in leading them to Him. Our examples can lead children to Jesus or away from Him.

Our Lord uses strong words because He loves us. He loves these children and He wants us to live. I humbly ask that you take these words to heart and avoid endangering the spiritual lives of the Lord’s most precious possession, His sheep.

20th May 2022

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10 EDITORIAL

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Northern Ireland Election - Victory For Sinn Fein?

At first glance the results of the local elections in Northern Ireland appear to be a significant victory for Sinn Fein. Sinn Féin will be the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time, pushing the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) into second place. Sinn Féin has 27 Anthony Murphy seats, compared to the DUP’s 25. The result means Michelle O’Neill will be entitled to become first minister - unprecedented for a nationalist but one which does not bode well for the future.

Secondly it is simply not correct for Sinn Fein to claim that they “won” the NI Assembly Election. They gained only 1% in their share of the vote which in turn delivered them the same number of seats as the 2017 election - so in an assembly of 90 they have just 27 seats - hardly the significant breakthrough many in the media would have us believe.

Speaking after the vote Ms O’Neill said it had been an election of “real change” and a “defining moment for our politics and for our people”. “Today ushers in a new era which I believe presents us all with an opportunity to re-imagine relationships in this society on the basis of fairness, on the basis of equality and on the basis of social justice,” she continued.

The other cross community parties total was 260,422 votes.

What she really means is of course that Sinn Fein will promote socialism under the guise of fairness and in particular they will seek to liberalise access to abortion and use “equality” legislation to further undermine family and marriage with the promotion of LGBT ideology in schools and through tax payer funded propaganda.

But while the success of Sinn Fein is being presented by much of the media as a historic victory a closer analysis of the results tells a different story.

First off just over 63% of the registered electorate chose to vote, this is down from the nearly 65% who voted in 2017 and shows increasing voter apathy and distrust of the electoral system and of politicians.

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.

In contrast, Traditionalist Unionist Voice ( TUV ) more than TREBLED their actual votes - and the Alliance Party nearly DOUBLED their % vote, and more than DOUBLED their seats - from eight to seventeen.

Therefore in numbers terms they are the real winners.

Overall the 250,385 votes cast for Sinn Fein represents only 29% of the electorate , with the combined Unionist votes totalled 351,893 or 40.79 % - many more than were cast for Sinn Fein.

The combined nationalist vote [SDLP + SF] at 328,622 was also smaller than the combined unionist vote of 351,893.

In conclusion it is a fact that 70.98% of voters did not vote for the party which continues to promote the culture of death in Northern Ireland. But the almost universal media spin [both internationally and domestically] was that SF “won”. This is because the message of Sinn Fein blends in well with the liberal mass media which shares their vision of “equality”.

Of course Sinn Fein would and should be less successful in elections if more Catholics took their faith seriously and voted as such. The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland and in particular the bishops of Northern Ireland should be doing more to cultivate a serious Catholic vote in future elections.

The election document published by the bishops prior to the election was a step in the right direction and encouraged voters to ask their candidates to protect the rights of the unborn but when it is crystal clear that every Sinn Fein candidate must support the party line and vote for abortion then it must surely be the duty of our bishops to insist that a vote for Sinn Fein is not compatible with the Catholic faith - this is not only true regarding SF support for abortion but also with their policies on family and marriage and the promotion of marxist ideology. It is simply not possible for anyone living the Catholic faith to vote for such a party.

The bishops could also endorse the sterling work of Precious Life and encourage the faithful to make use of the list of Pro Life candidates which Precious Life always publish prior to any election in Northern Ireland.

Indeed the bishops could learn a lot from the straight talking priest Father Paddy McCafferty!

20th May 2022

Catholic Voice

EDITORIAL 11

As readers will know Fr Paddy McCafferty speaks robustly on the most decisive issue of our time – the grave evil of abortion.

A six-minute-long video clip taken from his parish webcam attracted tens of thousands of views on social media in which he called out those political representatives who have “betrayed the cause of life.”

It is refreshing to finally hear a cleric not only rebuke the evil of abortion from the pulpit but, condemn local representatives in the political arena who advocated for it.

Fr. McCafferty lambasted “those Nationalist candidates” who were seeking re-election and he urged Catholics to seriously consider the enormous weight their vote could have in reshaping a new Assembly which would finally repeal Section 9 of the Executive Formation Act – the legal mechanism that allows for the killing of babies in the womb up to birth.

for abortion. The only Nationalist party to uphold the right to life is Aontu.”

Fr McCafferty said: “I have a responsibility to ask the faithful to vote in accordance with what the church teaches. The evil of abortion is irreconcilable with being Catholic yet it is being promoted by parties like the SDLP, Sinn Fein and also Alliance and The Green Party who have betrayed the cause of life – the vulnerable child in the womb being torn to pieces. It’s nothing less than barbarism. There is no justification

While it is unfortunate that some faithful Catholics cannot yet bring themselves to vote for a unionist candidate - and given the history this is understandable - it is clear that the traditional nationalist parties cannot be trusted to protect the unborn, defend marriage or protect innocent school children from the LGBT agenda. The choice for Catholics is therefore very clear - don’t leave your faith outside the polling station at the next election.

Fr Paddy pointed out that while people must vote independently he had a responsibility to advise faithful Catholics not to leave their faith outside the polling station.

12 SAPIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself Shall Be Made Desolate And Every City Or House Divided Against Itself Shall Not Stand John Lacken Let us begin by praying for our bishops that they will seek first the Kingdom of God.

Mother Mary Augustine (Mary Aikenhead) founder of the Sisters of Charity in Ireland and founder of St Vincent’s Hospital

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.

One of the great treasures of our Catholic Faith is that it is timeless and its core teachings are unchanging. When we hear of bishops and cardinals who seek to change these timeless teachings, let us be on our guard. There are those who claim to be trying to establish Christ’s kingdom here on earth and, like Judas, they grow impatient and seek to make compromise with the world in order to speed things up.

Christ Himself tells Pontius Pilate that His Kingdom is not of this world. “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence.” (John 18:36) In rebuking St Peter for cutting off the servant’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane Christ says: “Put up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53) In these times, when to all intents and purposes the Catholic Church seems to be failing in her mission, 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

On 23rd January 1834, Mary Aikenhead responded to an urgent need in the city of Dublin and opened St Vincent’s Hospital. In the midnineteen hundreds, it became evident that it was no longer possible to extend the Hospital in St Stephen’s Green. On 1st November 1970 the first patients were transferred from St Stephen’s Green to the current site in Elm Park.

Some of the land at Elm Park has now been transferred from the Sisters of Charity to enable the Irish government to build a hospital one purpose of which is to allow nascent innocent human beings be put to death.

it is easy to forget that God can intervene at any time to change the course of human history. God is not confined to any era of human history and He watches over us with loving care and He does intervene from time to time in order to try to wake us up to reality.

We are living in a time when many bishops and cardinals refuse to call out those who abuse their secular power. We regularly witness ‘catholic’ politicians who support abortion being given Holy Communion. In this refusal these bishops and cardinals allow error and falsehoods to flourish to the detriment of mankind. We see this particularly in the area of human sexuality, where false ideologies are causing grave harm to young children and are leading many astray with hardly any opposition from the Catholic bishops.

It is good therefore to look to what the Catholic Church teaches about our duties in civil society and, to that end, I want to take a look at the encyclical ‘Sapientiae Christianae’ - On Christians as Citizens, promulgated by Pope Leo XIII on the 10th January, 1890.

The encyclical begins as follows.

“From day to day it becomes more and more evident how needful it is that the principles of Christian wisdom should ever be borne in mind, and that the life, the morals, and the institutions of nations should be wholly conformed to them.

For, when these principles have been disregarded, evils so vast have accrued that no right-minded man can face the trials of the time being without grave anxiety or consider the future without alarm. Progress, not inconsiderable indeed, has been made towards securing the wellbeing of the body and of material things, but the material world, with the possession of wealth, power, and resources, although it may well procure comforts and increase the enjoyment of life, is incapable of satisfying our soul created for higher and more glorious things.

To contemplate God, and to tend to Him, is the supreme law of the life of man. For we were created in the divine image and likeness, and are impelled, by our very nature, to the enjoyment of our Creator.

But not by bodily motion or effort

20th May 2022

Catholic Voice

do we make advance toward God, but through acts of the soul, that is, through knowledge and love. For, indeed, God is the first and supreme truth, and the mind alone feeds on truth. God is perfect holiness and the sovereign good, to which only the will can desire and attain, when virtue is its guide.”

I love the clarity with which Pope Leo XIII begins this encyclical. It is a refreshing change from the banal and often ambiguous statements that we have become used to. This encyclical is as relevant today as it was in 1890 and we can clearly see in our day the truth of the statement that, “when these principles have been disregarded, evils so vast have accrued that no rightminded man can face the trials of the time being without grave anxiety or consider the future without alarm.”

ON CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS 13 again Pope Leo XIII predicted what is now happening in Ireland. Here is the third paragraph of his encyclical.

“As to what We have called the goods of the soul, which consist chiefly in the practice of the true religion and in the unswerving observance of the Christian precepts, We see them daily losing esteem among men, either by reason of forgetfulness or disregard, in such wise that all that is gained for the well-being of the body seems to be lost for that of the soul.

A striking proof of the lessening and weakening of the Christian faith is seen in the insults too often done to the Catholic Church, openly and publicly - insults, indeed, which an age cherishing religion would not have tolerated.

The millions of nascent human beings that are slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs on an annual basis was unthinkable back in 1890. Of course there were abortions back in 1890, but the sheer scale of this abomination today tends to dull the senses and people speak of abortion without any sense of horror or shame.

For these reasons, an incredible multitude of men is in danger of not achieving salvation; and even nations and empires themselves cannot long remain unharmed, since, when Christian institutions and morality decline, the main foundation of human society goes together with them.

When we look to the war situation in Ukraine we see that many people are fearful for the future.

Force alone will remain to preserve public tranquillity and order. But force is very feeble when the bulwark of religion has been removed, and, being more apt to beget slavery than obedience, it bears within itself the germs of ever-increasing troubles. The present century has encountered memorable disasters, and it is not certain that some equally terrible are not impending.

Pope Leo XIII continues, “But what applies to individual men applies equally to society - domestic alike and civil. Nature did not form society in order that man should seek in it his last end, but in order that in it and through it he should find suitable aids whereby to attain to his own perfection. If, then, a political government strives after external advantages only, and the achievement of a cultured and prosperous life; if, in administering public affairs, it is wont to put God aside, and show no solicitude for the upholding of moral law, it deflects woefully from its right course and from the injunctions of nature; nor should it be accounted as a society or a community of men, but only as the deceitful imitation or appearance of a society.”

Those who live life with the eyes of faith can see that Ireland and other western countries are but ‘deceitful imitations’ of civilised society. There is a current controversy in Ireland over the new maternity hospital and the fact that it is to be built on a site that was formerly owned by the Sisters of Charity. The sisters transferred ownership of the site knowing that the new maternity hospital intends to kill unborn children.

The deceitful language used in relation to this is quite simply evil. The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, said, “People will be able to see within the Memorandum of Understanding the clinical protections in the NMH and indeed the obligations on the new National Maternity Hospital to provide all services.”

All ‘services’ means abortions, sterilisations and other immoral practices which should have prevented this site from ever being used by the Irish government. Once

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14 SAPIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

The very times in which we live are warning us to seek remedies there where alone they are to be found - namely, by re-establishing in the family circle and throughout the whole range of society the doctrines and practices of the Christian religion. In this lies the sole means of freeing us from the ills now weighing us down, of forestalling the dangers now threatening the world.

For the accomplishment of this end, venerable brethren, We must bring to bear all the activity and diligence that lie within Our power. Although we have already, under other circumstances, and whenever occasion required, treated of these matters, We deem it expedient in this letter to define more in detail the duties of the Catholics, inasmuch as these would, if strictly observed, wonderfully contribute to the good of the commonwealth.

We have fallen upon times when a violent and wellnigh daily battle is being fought about matters of highest moment, a battle in which it is hard not to be sometimes deceived, not to go astray and, for many, not to lose heart. It behooves us, venerable brethren, to warn, instruct, and exhort each of the faithful with an earnestness befitting the occasion: that none may abandon the way of truth.”

Pope Leo XIII established. Upon this earth, indeed, she accomplishes her pilgrimage, but by instructing and guiding men she summons them to eternal happiness.

Meanwhile our bishops in Ireland “encourage the public to support a global campaign ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’, which seeks to encourage political leaders to take strong action on climate change... The ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’ petition, calls for a joined up, just response to the COVID 19, climate and biodiversity crises” (Irish Catholic Bishops Conference Autumn 20221)

We are bound, then, to love dearly the country whence we have received the means of enjoyment this mortal life affords, but we have a much more urgent obligation to love, with ardent love, the Church to which we owe the life of the soul, a life that will endure forever. For fitting it is to prefer the good of the soul to the wellbeing of the body, inasmuch as duties toward God are of a far more hallowed character than those toward men.”

As Pope Leo XIII tells us “the material world, with the possession of wealth, power, and resources, although it may well procure comforts and increase the enjoyment of life, is incapable of satisfying our soul created for higher and more glorious things.”

Our first duty is to God and to His Catholic Church.

What are we to do when our politicians enact laws which are offensive to God and when they promote immorality in our schools?

Pope Leo then tells us that Catholics have greater duties than non Catholics when it comes to matters dealing with the salvation of the soul. He speaks of the love a man has for his country, often being willing to lay down his life for his country, and tells us that our love for the Church is more important.

“For the Church is the holy City of the living God, born of God Himself, and by Him built up and

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Pope Leo XIII explains that, “Law is of its very essence a mandate of right reason, proclaimed by a properly constituted authority, for the common good. But true and legitimate authority is void of sanction, unless it proceed from God, the supreme Ruler and Lord of all.

The Almighty alone can commit power to a man over his fellow men; nor may that be accounted as right reason which is in disaccord with truth and with divine reason; nor that held to be true good which is repugnant to the supreme and unchangeable good, or that wrests aside and draws away the wills of men from the charity of God.” Pope Leo XIII tells us that we must respect the authority of the state but he also tells us.

“But, if the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus

20th May 2022

Catholic Voice

Christ, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanour against the State itself, inasmuch as every offense levelled against religion is also a sin against the State.

Here anew it becomes evident how unjust is the reproach of sedition; for the obedience due to rulers and legislators is not refused, but there is a deviation from their will in those precepts only which they have no power to enjoin.

Commands that are issued adversely to the honour due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws.

ON CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS 15

Thereby he openly declares that, if laws of men contain injunctions contrary to the eternal law of God, it is right not to obey them.

In like manner, the Prince of the Apostles gave this courageous and sublime answer to those who would have deprived him of the liberty of preaching the Gospel: “If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

global forces to the detriment of children.

We are less that a third of the way through this encyclical and already Pope Leo XIII has stirred our hearts and has called us to arms against the enemies of the Catholic Church.

We must fight to establish solid and soundly formed Catholic families and to restore the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church throughout the whole range of society. Catholic parents must take up anew their duties towards their children and we must insist that our bishops help us in this task by joining with us in publicly resisting and opposing immoral government dictats.

As Catholics, we are duty bound to oppose the unjust laws on abortion, to oppose immoral sex education especially in Catholic schools, and to oppose the harmful LGBT ideology that is being promoted by to be cont’d...

Prayer Request

You are fully aware, venerable brothers, that this is the very contention of the Apostle St. Paul, Please pray that I will be able to find suitable accommodation for my who, in writing to Titus, after family. It is getting more and more difficult for those of us who rent our reminding Christians that they family homes to find security of tenure. We have recently been given are “to be subject to princes and notice to quit the house we moved into last February. We are hoping to powers, and to obey at a word,” move into a three bedroomed house near Limerick and Sacred Heart at once adds: “And to be ready to Church. If you have or if you know of suitable accommodation, then please get in touch - 085-1208779 - May God bless you - John Lacken every good work.”(Titus 3:1) 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.

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16 SAINT JOSEPH’S STAIRCASE

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

The Miraculous Staircase Of Loretto Trust In Our Lady & Saint Joseph Fr. Bryan Stitt Last year marked 140 years since the completion of the most famous staircase in the Catholic world.

It’s in the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I hope that you know the story. In the 1870s in New Mexico, despite all the surrounding structures made of adobe, it was decided that a Gothic Church in the Gothic revival style would be built there in Santa Fe — with all the spires and the buttresses, even stained glass windows brought in from France.

It was beautiful – small but beautiful – save one crucial flaw. There was no staircase to the choir loft. You see, the architect died late in its completion and the excuse was, in that time, it just slipped through the cracks. And that loft was so high and the Church so narrow that a conventional staircase could not work. Despite this major flaw, the chapel was consecrated in 1878 with, yes, no stairs.

And it stayed like that for years.

No carpenter could be found to complete the crucial project until mother superior and the sisters had just about enough and they decided to pray a novena asking the intercession of St. Joseph the carpenter. They spent nine days of prayer and, on the tenth day, a carpenter showed up with very basic tools in hand but with a promise to build them the stairs. They didn’t even know him. In fact, they knew even less at his departure than his arrival, for he left without saying goodbye or without even being paid for his work.

When they saw the staircase the word miraculous was used very quickly. As they looked even closer and they studied it, the term was used more often because the wood that was used in that staircase 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.

Secondly, those stairs involved plenty of prayer. Who says a novena for something as mundane as stairs?

But praying has power and moms sure know it. What mother out there doesn’t pray daily for her children?

I know my mom sure does. And Holy Mother Church knows it too, giving life to her children. We entrust ourselves, our mothers, and our children, to the grace of Our Lord. Just like Mary, we remain in Him and He remains in us, in that spirit of love, as the Lord tells us in the Gospel.

could not be found anywhere in the southwest. In fact, none of the lumber yards in the area knew of any order of it.

Even to an unbeliever the spiral staircase was an engineering marvel, for there were no nails, no screws, no glue used in it. There was no central post, nor even a handle, along with the thirtythree stairs — one for each year of the life of our Lord before His cross. Now the Church has never officially declared it to be so, but the sisters were convinced that the carpenter was none other than St. Joseph himself.

The story of the miraculous stairs reminds us of some of the best qualities of mothers. First, they don’t despair. In a world with so much despair and darkness, those Sisters of Loretto inspire us. They could have easily given up.

Remember it had been years of them praying in that chapel, the architect had died, and they were no good at shimmying up ropes to get up into the choir loft, but they didn’t give up. We know that Mary continually receives us as she received John into her life and entered into his home at the Cross. So, she watches out with hope and not despair for us.

And then, finally, those stairs and mothers offer just enough care. I find it very remarkable — most pictures of the stairs today show them seven years after their completion, when a railing was added. But, if it was Joseph who built them, when he designed them, there was no railing.

And, you know what? It was scary.

Thirty-three stairs making two complete rotations, over twenty feet up into the air with no railing, no net. Some of the nuns were so nervous that they would go up and down the stairs on their hands and knees. And a mother’s care for us as well, just enough, lifting us up. We love our moms for holding us so tightly, of course. But we also love them for letting us go, for trusting in the grace of God. Mary gives us that great example when Jesus left the caravan, and she and Joseph travelled for a day and a half back to Nazareth — before turning back to find Jesus, who they thought was in the caravan with them—only to find Him three days later in the temple.

Mary is no helicopter parent, the Church is no helicopter mother.

We love God as we keep His commandments, in that motherly embrace of the Church. So as we come to the altar to be nourished, as a mother nourishes her child, we find hope. We find that our prayer is inspired, and that we can bring all of our cares to Him. And so we ask the intercession of the Holy Family, we say Our Lady of the Assumption — pray for us, St. Joseph — pray for us.

20th May 2022

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CATHOLIC VOICE ONGOING APPEAL 17

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Many of these Churches have not yet renewed their orders for Catholic Voice, and the reduction in circulation has meant that the cost per issue has increased. We are also experiencing increased postal costs.

We are hopeful that in the coming year, as things slowly return to normal many of the Catholic Churches which stocked Catholic Voice before the Covid crisis, will do so once again.

In the meantime, we are struggling to meet our financial commitments and so we are appealing to you for your help.

We believe that Catholic Voice is needed now more than ever with the attacks on the Catholic faith increasing on an almost daily basis.

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The enemies of the Catholic Church in Ireland keep using past scandals to undermine and to damage the faith of ordinary Catholics. The Tuam Mother and Baby Home and the Magdalen Laundries have once again featured in the mainstream media. Much of what is reported is a form of propaganda which focuses on past traumas whilst ignoring the plight of the minimum of 6,500 unborn children murdered annually and their mothers, many of whom will come to regret the death of their children.

The promotion of the dangerous and child damaging LGBT agenda, with accompanying LGBT indoctrination programmes, even in Catholic schools, continues to grow. We are the only Catholic journal in Ireland exposing this corruption of children and calling on our bishops to act in defence of the innocence of these children.

We also carry many articles which help Catholics to both understand and to live out their Catholic faith and we provide encouragement and support for Catholics who wish to resist the growing global tyranny.

Dear Anthony & Kim,

What we are hoping to do is to assemble a group of ‘FRIENDS’ of Catholic Voice who are willing to make a regular contribution to help cover the day to day costs until our circulation increases to pre-Covid levels.

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18 FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

A Rare And Precious Victory For Christian Free Speech Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

This is the story of Hal Shurtleff, the Fourth Flagpole and the Christian flag.

Hal Shurtleff is one of this column’s titular saints. For decades he has devoted his life to Camp Constitution, a Christian summer camp for teenagers in the back country of Massachusetts. I was a camp counsellor there for two years before the Chinese virus struck. For an intensive and exhilarating week, the teenagers are given courses of instruction in everything from why Christianity is a good thing to why the climate change scam is a bad thing. But above all they are given a firm grounding in the splendours of the United States Constitution.

Outside the City Hall in Boston, long controlled by the generally anti-Christian “Democrat” Party, stand four flagpoles. On the first three flagpoles, the City flies the flags of the United States, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and of the City of Boston. Amiably, it allows anyone else to fly a flag for a week at a time on the fourth flagpole. I have long wondered what would happen if I were to ask the City to fly the Union Flag.

However, in 2017, when Hal Shurtleff and his organization applied to fly a Christian flag on the fourth flagpole, the City of Boston turned them down flat. Almost 300 other organizations, including the Holy See and the Chinese Communist Party, had had their flags flown. But Camp Constitution was refused, solely on the ground that, on its application form, it had mentioned that the flag it proposed to fly was Christian. It bore the Cross.

The Communist city fathers weren’t having that. For the only time on record, they refused to fly a flag on request.

Don’t mess with Hal. In 2018 he applied to the District Court for an order telling the City of Boston

to let him exercise the same free speech as they had permitted their fellow-Communists from China to exercise.

However, the courts in the United States are not the impartial tribunals to which we are accustomed on this side of the pond. They are political and, these days, that means they are far Left. Scandalously, the District Court turned Hal down.

So in 2019 Hal appealed to the First Circuit Court, which scandalously turned him down. In 2020 he went back to the District Court and tried again. The District Court scandalously turned him down again. In 2021 he went back to the First Circuit Court. The First Circuit Court scandalously turned him down again.

After four refusals, most people would have given up. But Hal Shurtleff is made of sterner stuff than most people. He appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

This is where the fun began. For the Supreme Court, like all the courts below it, is intensely political.

But, unlike the judges in the lower courts, who are near-exclusively

totalitarian, particularly in far-Left States such as Massachusetts, the justices of the Supreme Court are directly appointed by the President of the United States. Since the Republican Party is not (yet) Communist, on average about half the justices are libertarians, because the White House is Republican about half the time.

Since the Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, it is pot luck whether a President will get to appoint anyone during his term of office. As it happens, more justices have retired during Republican than during Democrat presidencies recently. Therefore, the Supreme Court is less than half totalitarian.

There are three very far-Left justices, five libertarians and Chief Justice Roberts, who started out as a libertarian but has drifted towards totalitarianism over the years.

Usually, this most intensely politically partisan of courts votes strictly along party lines – five votes for libertarianism, four for totalitiarianism. Sometimes, when chief justice Roberts remembers his roots, there are six votes for libertarianism and three for totalitarianism.

20th May 2022 But get this. When Hal went before the Supreme Court, the score – just announced – was nine to nil in his favour. Even the totalitarian justices could not keep a straight face and find in favour of the ghastly City of Boston.

The issue that Hal presented to the Supremes was this: When private religious viewpoints are censored from a public forum open to all speakers, does government violate the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

The City of Boston had disreputably sought to maintain that in deciding which flags to allow and which to deny it was, in effect, exercising “government speech” and was, therefore, entitled to decide what it wanted to say on its fourth flagpole.

It was willing to speak up for the Chinese Communist Party, which unlawfully occupies and represses free Tibet, imprisons millions of Muslim Uyghurs in concentration camps, forcibly harvests the organs of living opponents to prolong the lives of the trembling gerontocrats of the Party, spreads fatal disease worldwide and tears down crosses and other Christian symbols from churches. But it was not willing to speak up for the world’s largest religion.

The Supreme Court did not buy Boston’s cheesy argument. For it was clear that, until the City had decided to veto Hal’s Christian flag it had allowed anyone and everyone who had applied to fly a flag to fly it. No exceptions.

It was Justice Alito who got right to the heart of the matter. He wrote: “Courts must be very careful when a government claims that speech by one or more private speakers is actually government speech. When that occurs, it can be difficult to tell whether the government is using the doctrine as a subterfuge for favouring certain private speaker over others based on viewpoint”, so that the government-speech doctrine becomes susceptible to dangerous misuse…

“To prevent the government-speech doctrine from being used as a cover

Catholic Voice

FREEDOM OF SPEECH 19

for censorship, courts must focus on the identity of the speaker. The ultimate question is whether the government is actually expressing its own views or the real speaker is a private party and the government is surreptitiously engaged in the regulation of private speech…

thoroughly totalitarian, have recorded supposed “hate-speech” “crimes” on individual citizens’ criminal records, but without even telling the individuals, and without going through the boring formality of taking the alleged offenders to court.

“Government control over speech is relevant to speaker identity in that speech by a private individual or group cannot constitute government speech if the government does not attempt to control the message. But control is also an essential element of censorship.”

Hal’s nine-nil victory, following four previous rejections in the lower courts, is not quite unprecedented, but it is rare and precious. Its beneficial effect will be felt worldwide. For it is a badlyneeded reminder that if you love your neighbour you let him have his say, even if you disagree with him.

As totalitarianism tightens its grip, increasingly Christians are being persecuted for saying Christian things. Recall the London Methodist pastor arrested, offensively interrogated and flung into prison for 21 hours for daring to quote Genesis: “Male and female created He them.”

Recall the whistleblower, David Daleiden, who faces nine baseless criminal charges for having exposed Planned Parenthood’s buying and selling of aborted children for medical experimentation so that its director could afford a Lamborghini.

Recall the numerous instances in which the British police, now

In the words of John Milton, successfully arguing against the imposition of a tax on books: This is true liberty, when freeborn men Having to advise the public, may speak free.

Which he who can and will deserves high praise.

Who neither can nor will may hold his peace.

What can be juster in a state than this?

20 PREACH THE GOSPEL

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

The Gospel Alive!

Mary Kearns

Attempting to deal with the perennial problem of passing the Faith on to the next generation engages many of us and taxes our own creativity to the utmost. It has been said that it is much harder to bring the new evangelization to a Christian nation than to those people who have never heard of Christianity. What about our country? The deeply held belief that Ireland is still fervently Catholic can be reinforced when we see the crowds at pilgrim sites such as Knock and Croagh Patrick or when there is an occasion to be blessed with a saint’s relic.

We thank the Lord for that and yet the acid test remains: how many of our young men and women do we see at Mass on Sunday?

It is stating the obvious to say that they are not like us. Many are deficient in catechesis and do not know the fundamental truths of the Faith. Trying to teach them usually falls on deaf ears; they believe they learned all that at school. Still, for the most part, Faith fails to resonate with most young adults today. So how do we reach them?

The cliché “we have to meet them where they are at” points in the direction of getting the attention of our youth. There is little doubt this is in the realm of technology. Is it going too far to assert that learning anything on screen is preferable to learning in the real world?

Programmes such as “Superbook” are showing young children how the Gospel is alive and interesting and above all, relevant to them. But for older children, teenagers and young adults, the programme that is having a resounding effect throughout the world is “The Chosen.”

This television series depicts the life of Jesus Christ while he ministered on earth, as seen largely through the eyes of his contemporaries. It is unique in being the top film project to be crowd-funded, not by multinationals or Hollywood giants. The plan was to make the series free so that everyone could access it.

before and during the filming of the show.

“The Chosen” was created, directed and co-written by Dallas Jenkins and has been viewed by 400 million people around the world. It has mostly appealed to the young whose recorded responses have varied from tears to absolute delight at the unfolding of the story of the Gospel.

“I didn’t quite invite Him into my career choices, my career planning, into every part where He desperately wanted to be, until I finally got to this point of utter and absolute desperation,” Roumie said.

Jonathan Roumie, a Catholic, who plays Jesus, explained that before he was assigned the role, he was struggling in his acting career and attributes this to his leaving God out of the picture.

The Gospel has come alive! Many have since bought Bibles to read the original story, since watching has created a desire to find out what really happened at the time.

“I had to look at everything that I had achieved and not achieved at this point in my life and realize that unless I invited God into my career, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, my career wasn’t going to move forward because He did not want that to happen without Him.”

Several of the actors have shared their own feelings about their individual journeys to becoming a part of “The Chosen,” including the role their Faith played in their career

Elizabeth Tabish who plays Mary Magdalene, declared that her role was a breath of fresh air enabling her to see the love and goodness in life “I’ve experienced that in my

20th May 2022

Catholic Voice

life from this show, experiencing working with these wonderful people.”

“based on the true stories of the Gospels of Jesus Christ.”

Dallas Jenkins who created the concept for “The Chosen” emphasized he is someone who believes absolutely in the Word of God.

Some locations and time-lines “have been combined or condensed” and “back-stories and some characters or dialogue have been added.”

Most of the investors are passionate about getting the message out to the world.

“Once people see the show, they tend to become evangelists for it.

The response has been incredible; lives are being changed, and even kids as young as five want to watch it repeatedly, which shocked me because I didn’t think kids would enjoy the show.”

So who are the Chosen? From watching the story unfold it is easy to see that those the Lord wanted to follow him and be part of his ministry are the chosen. But chosen also refers back to the people of Israel, who are the chosen people of God.

The Covid-19 pandemic proved a blessing in disguise for “The Chosen” because it had an audience at home. When Dallas Jenkins announced that the first eight sessions would be available free of charge, he was astounded at the response.

That belief made their time under Roman occupation possible to bear while they awaited the Messiah.

Now we are in New Testament times.

Since then, mass donations have come in to help fund a second season of the series which is now available and the third series is currently being filmed.

In an interview with Crosstalk, the director said “I have no interest in changing anything from Scripture.

We are adding cultural and historical context, we are adding some artistic imagination to these stories” The series, he said, was created to help viewers love the Bible more. “This show was designed to enhance our love for Scripture, to draw us more to Scripture, and to bring to life some of the stories that we’ve heard many times.”

“The Chosen” includes scenes and dialogue directly from Scripture, but it also includes scenes and dialogue not in the Bible. Viewers learn on the opening scroll it is

Through the Paschal mystery, we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and we are Christians – the new Chosen people of God. A recent survey among secondary school students has shown how lacking their education is in the doctrine and disciplines of the Catholic Church. If we are serious about handing on the Faith, there are several ways open to us.

PREACH THE GOSPEL 21 Obviously the first one is catechesis.

The trouble with this method is that those who have been through the educational system have “done” religion. They have had instruction in the Eucharist; they know what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is; they have taken part in many school liturgies and attended funerals and the occasional wedding.

They assume they know what the Catholic Faith is all about, and it does very little for them. However although they may have studied Religion as a subject, it is not the same thing as Faith formation.

We should be glad to avail of any means that will draw our young people to God. The world has moved on so fast that we often find ourselves in uncharted territory.

Nevertheless, those experienced in matters of religion will understand that often things are not up to us.

The Lord will open unexpected doors and if young men and women are introduced to the Faith and come in a different door than we would have planned for them, it should not cause us to worry.

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

22 AT WAR WITH THE DEVIL

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

We Are At War With Agents Of The Devil Fr. Kevin Drew

In 1949 George Orwell wrote a book titled 1984. It was about life in a totalitarian state; life under a government that held total control over peoples’ lives.

Orwell invented terms used in the book that resonate today: Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak. The main character in the book worked for the Ministry of Truth, a government office whose mission was to falsify history. Orwellian is a term which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past. One famous quote from the book reads: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”

In 1968 some students in the city of Krakow, Poland organised an unofficial lecture titled “Orwell’s 1984 and Poland Today.” It was broken up by the police at the behest of Poland’s communist government. A few days later there was a meeting in a Catholic church titled “Orwell’s 1984 and Poland Today.” It was not broken up. The Archbishop of Krakow had ordered Orwell’s 1984 to be read in all churches. That Archbishop’s name was Karol Wojtyla.

Karol (that’s Charles or Karl in Polish) was born in 1920 in the very Catholic country of Poland. In 1939, when Karol was 19, World War II erupted. Nazi Germany invaded his country from the west, and the Marxist Soviet Union from Russia invaded from the east.

Poland, where Christianity was introduced in 966 AD, was then crucified between two thieves.

Big Brother IS Watching You!

Both the pagan Nazis and godless communist invaders sought to stamp out from the peoples’ memory Poland’s intrinsically Catholic culture.

In an effort to keep that culture and history alive the young Karol took part in an underground theatre that performed Polish plays, poetry and music. Karol also, at great risk to his life, secretly studied for the priesthood.

When World War II ended in 1945, Poland became a puppet state of the communists from Russia.

In 1953 the Polish government implemented a law by which it, and not the Church, would appoint and remove pastors and bishops.

The Church would become a de facto subsidiary of the Polish government. The primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski stated: “We teach that it is proper to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God that which is

God’s. But when Caesar sits himself on the altar, we respond curtly: he may not” For his trouble, Cardinal Wyszynski was charged with treason and went to prison. By the end of 1953 eight Polish bishops and 900 priests joined him. Over the next two years 2000 priests were imprisoned. By 1954 one out of three Polish persons were on Poland’s “register of suspicious and criminal elements” (Weigel, 36). Each Polish parish had a communist informer. Fr. Karol Wojtyla’s residence was completely bugged and his closest friends were spied on to discredit him.

In 1958 Wojtyla became Poland’s youngest bishop at age 38, and in 1964 he was made Archbishop of Krakow. During these years Wojtyla was bravely at odds with communist ideology. He taught that the demand for religious freedom be respected. He preached that parents should have complete liberty to

“In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved” (Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

20th May 2022

AT WAR WITH THE DEVIL 23

Catholic Voice

raise their children in the truths of the faith, and that no one should suffer or lose their job for religious beliefs. Spying on Wojtyla then intensified. By 1967 there were an estimated 270 active priests and lay communist informants in his diocese.

In 1978, the unthinkable happened.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul II. The next year, 1979, he went home to Poland. A man who lived under a brutal soul-destroying tyrannical state for most of his life was returning there as the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. The mortified communists sent a secret directive to Polish schoolteachers explaining how they should understand and explain the Pope’s visit: “The pope is our enemy… Due to his uncommon skills and great sense

of humour he is dangerous, because he charms everyone, especially journalists… he shakes all hands, kisses children… It is modelled on American presidential campaigns …Because of the activation of the Church in Poland our activities designed to atheize the youth not only cannot diminish but must intensely develop… In this respect, all means are allowed and we cannot afford any sentiments” (cf. Witness to Hope by George Weigel).

None of that mattered. Eleven million people, one out of three Polish persons, saw the Pope during a visit that was political and religious dynamite. People in the huge crowds looked around and gained confidence.

The Poles watching on TV had to laugh at the state-controlled media coverage. Thousands lined the streets and shouted, “We want God. We want God,” but the TV kept showing close-ups of old ladies dressed as

babushkas. A writer said it was like watching a soccer game where the camera follows everything but the ball.

“Wojtyla showed himself the true master of Polish hearts and minds, by giving back to his people their authentic history and culture; their true identity… By restoring their identity to a people who had been oppressed for forty years; by giving Poland back to the Poles, and giving the Poles back to themselves he created new tools of resistance that communism simply could not match” (cf. The End and the Beginning by George Weigel, 111).

Wojtyla always had a small smile on his face. It exuded a “Be not afraid” attitude. He sort of gave the impression with that smile that he had a secret; that he knew something his enemies did not.

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24 AT WAR WITH THE DEVIL

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Wojtyla did know something, but he wanted to share it. He wanted to share with the world God’s Divine Mercy. This is what his fellow Pole, the nun St Faustina Kowalska was told by Christ himself in the 1930’s, shortly before Poland received a real taste of hell during World War II; a war in which twenty-percent of Poland’s population perished.

Speaking of hell, St Faustina, who died in 1938, recorded how Christ had an angel escort her to hell. It’s in paragraph 741 of her now famous diary, The Diary of St Faustina: “I, Sister Faustina Kowalska, by the order of God, have visited the Abysses of Hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence…the devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God, What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: That most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell.”

And here we are today, living on the abyss of hell. For example, look at the present-situation in our government schools, which in so many ways are designed to atheize our youth. Recently I saw a video clip of then Illinois Senator Barak Obama in 2007 speaking to Planned

John Paul II and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, oil on canvas by Małgorzata Wrochna

Parenthood, the company that makes billions of dollars murdering babies and selling their parts.

A smiling Obama told the very pleased crowd that teaching sex education to kindergarten children was “the right thing to do.”

Yes, in classic Marxist fashion, where the state is the primary teacher and parent, innocent children need to learn about the mechanics of sex before learning to read or write. But the mere mechanics of it all was not enough, was it? No, the “right thing to do” now includes indoctrinating children into believing they can change their God-given sex. I’ve read reports of first graders now identifying as animals. I read where a substitute teacher was fired last year for refusing to meow back to a firstgrade girl who identifies as a cat.

What is going on? What is happening? What is happening is that we are at war. We are at war with agents of the devil who are full of hatred for God and mankind.

Unfortunately, in many ways some of the Church leadership in Rome appears to have become a de facto accomplice and in some ways subsidiary of an anti-Christian world government; one that is inviting Caesar to sit himself on the altar. Powerful bishops, some who have intimated that hell does not

exist, are fixated with changes in the weather and “sexual diversity.” At the same time they appear mortified of serious Catholics, which include young families who want their authentic history, culture and identity back. Thus the assault from Rome on things traditional; things it deems “rigid” and “backwards.”

Friends, Jesus Christ started a Church. He breathed on His Apostles, giving them the power to forgive sins and offer the Eternal Sacrifice of Mass that saves us from hell. And so – when Caesar sits himself on the altar, we respond curtly: “You may not.” Will that get us placed on the “register of suspicious and criminal elements”?

Probably. But so what? Peter, the first Pope said it was a good thing to suffer for Christ’s name.

In the silence at Mass, picture Christ with a small confident smile fixed on you. Listen to him say to you: “I know something, and I want to share it with you. It is this: I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. I am the Lord of history. It is I who control the past, present and future. I am your Ministry of Truth.

So be not afraid of the world. Trust in my mercy and I will create in you tools of resistance that hell can simply not match.”

20th May 2022

Catholic Voice

SYNODALITY? 25

Bishop Schneider On Synod: Church Should Not Focus On ‘Conducting Opinion Polls’ Matt Gaspers ‘The method of synodality proposed that includes debating with people of other faith traditions, people of no religion, and even with people characterised as ‘etc.’ will ultimately obfuscate the Faith.’ Bp. Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan.

“It is without doubt that God wants His Church to focus on rooting out the sources of doctrinal, moral, liturgical, and spiritual corruption that have plagued her for decades, as a means of restoring health to the Church in our day.”

Thus says His Excellency Athanasius Schneider, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, in a lengthy new interview with Catholic Family News on the subject of synodality.

“To establish as a principle of synodality such things as discussing, chatting, and conducting opinions polls is alien to the Church and definitely resembles the methods of heterodox groups,” the Kazakh prelate of German descent stated in reference to the current Synod on Synodality, which began last October and is scheduled to conclude in October 2023.

“The method of synodality proposed

by Pope Francis that includes debating with people of other faith traditions, people of no religion, and even with people characterized as ‘etc.’, will ultimately obfuscate the Faith.”

In this wide-ranging interview, Bishop Schneider responds to questions involving not just the current synod but also the

Image LifeSiteNews

institution of the Synod of Bishops itself by Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis’s concerning understanding of synodality (based on a false ecclesiology), the true nature of the sensus fidei (“sense of faith”) and its authentic function in the Church, and His Excellency’s thoughts on continuing efforts to eradicate the Traditional Mass and other liturgical rites of the Roman Church via Traditionis Custodes and the Responsa ad Dubia.

Drawing from his expertise in Church history and the Fathers of the Church (His Excellency holds a doctorate in Theology and Patristic Sciences at the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum” in Rome), Bishop Schneider offers many valuable insights into the role of synods (local, regional, and universal) throughout Church history and how the modern concept and practice of ‘synodality,’ beginning with Paul VI’s creation of the Synod of Bishops in 1965, “is indeed a novelty in the entire history of the Church.”

And furthermore, it “represents a superfluous multiplication of ecclesiastical structures and bureaucracies in the life of the Church.”

As His Excellency wisely observes, “It is always healthier for the life of the Church to have fewer permanent structures, since every structure creates not only bureaucracy but also clerical bureaucrats.”

When asked what he would set as the agenda for a future synod if given the opportunity, Bishop Schneider said: “I consider that the agenda of a synod of bishops should focus on the elaboration and presentation of a detailed profession of the truths of faith relating to some of the most common doctrinal, moral, liturgical, and pastoral errors in the life of the Church of our time.”

The full interview can be viewed using the following link: https:// catholicfamilynews.com/ blog/2022/04/25/exclusive-bishopschneider-on-synodality/

26 THE TRUTH OF HUMAN SEXUALITY

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Rediscovering A Christian Vision Of Sex And Marriage Fr. Shenan J. Boquet

NB - this article is Not Suitable for Children - NB A few days ago The Washington Post published a remarkable essay calling for the development of a “new sexual ethic.” As the author, Christine Emba, argues, instead of the modern sexual ethic that judges sexual encounters based upon “consent” alone, what we need is a new ethic that will advocate such things as sex within a context of “listening,” “care,” and “mutual responsibility.”

Emba’s essay reminded me of a story that G.K. Chesterton recounts in the introduction to his brilliant defence of Christianity, Orthodoxy.

Chesterton tells this story as an allegory for his own relationship with Christianity. As a young agnostic he rejected his Christian upbringing and set out to develop a bold new philosophy that would provide answers to his biggest questions. In the end, however, he realised that he had simply rediscovered Christianity. As he put it in a famous line, “I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.”

Though she might not know it, Emba is on a journey like that of Chesterton’s. She believes that she is a bold adventurer, throwing out the accepted orthodoxy of the current age that bases sexual ethics purely on a shallow notion of “consent” and advocating for something radical and subversive based upon mutual self-giving.

But of course, this radical new thing is simply what Christian civilisation has taught for over 2,000 years.

Sex Based on ‘Consent’ is a Recipe for Disaster

What Emba’s essay makes abundantly clear, however, is just how urgently our culture needs to rediscover this old sexual ethic. Her descriptions of the modern “dating” scene are bleak beyond words. My heart breaks for the young men and women she describes who have never known anything better.

One 30-year-old woman, Kaitlin, told Emba she has been dating a man that she likes. “But,” she added, “he chokes me during sex.”

Kaitlin then asks Emba, “I mean, what do you think? Is that okay?”

There is just so much wrong with that last sentence that it’s hard to know where to begin. As Emba rightly points out, here is a case where “consent” has gone horribly awry. Technically, this woman has “consented” to her boyfriend’s violent behaviour. At least, she hasn’t spoken up against it. And yet, there is no doubt that Kaitlin is being abused. However, she has been so conditioned by the “consent” culture, that she can’t even formulate why she feels uncomfortable, or why she desires something more from a sexual encounter.

Tragically, Kaitlin’s story is far from rare. In 2019, The Atlantic published a story with the nauseating headline, “The Startling Rise of Choking During Sex.” The sub headline notes that “a quarter of women in the U.S. reporting feeling scared during sex.” In one study involving 347 participants, 23 said that their partners have tried to choke them “unexpectedly” during sex. Women are also reporting a rise in a variety of other violent sexual behaviours – many of which are too disturbing and graphic to describe here.

These behaviours have been mainstreamed and normalised due to the meteoric rise of graphic and often-violent pornography. Statistics show that an overwhelming majority of men (and a growing percentage of women) are watching huge amounts of pornography, which routinely depicts choking and other violent acts as desirable.

The predictable result is that some of these viewers are being conditioned to desire these things for themselves, and are re-enacting these behaviours in real life.

20th May 2022 The most disturbing result, however, is that those who don’t want to do these things, and are simply looking for love and romance, nevertheless feel pressured to “consent,” because, after all, “everybody’s doing it,” and “it’s no big deal.”

As Emba writes: “the pressure to say ‘yes’ feels more like a pressure not to say ‘no’ — to live up to the ‘callous womanizer’ stereotype that the low bar of consent culture still seemed to allow.”

As Emba notes, some people, recognising the problems the ethic of “consent” has produced, have argued that consent alone isn’t enough. Predators will always pressure and push the boundary, obtaining a half-hearted “consent” that is enough to protect them from legal consequences. What is needed is “enthusiastic” consent.

Furthermore, getting consent at the beginning of a sexual encounter isn’t enough. People should obtain consent every step of the way.

Turning sex into a hobby, a plaything, in which the participants get away with whatever they can obtain “consent” to, is to make a mockery of it. And it is, as so many are learning, to invite disillusionment, heartache, pain, and abuse. As Emba puts it, “an over reliance on consent as the sole solution might actually worsen the malaise that so many people feel: If you’re playing by the rules and everything still feels awful, what are you supposed to conclude?”

Catholic Voice

THE TRUTH OF HUMAN SEXUALITY 27

not to act if the outcome would be negative. It’s mutual concern — thinking about someone other than yourself and then working so their experience is as good as you hope yours to be.”

What if, she imagines wistfully, we built a new sexual ethic on this idea of love?

Perhaps the saddest thing about Emba’s essay is that the idea of building a sexual ethic like this seems like a radical idea to her.

The younger generations have been taught their whole lives that they have the “freedom” to have sex with whomever they want, whenever they want. No longer are they “shackled” by the old moral rules. A sexual act is no longer some special thing that we save for marriage. It is a plaything that we can use to obtain pleasure and happiness according to our own standards.

When Emba cries out for a “new” approach to sex, what she is really

calling out for – though she doesn’t know it – is a restoration of the Christian ideal of marriage.

Only in such a relationship can the woman feel safe and valued for who she is. Only in such a union is a man challenged to channel his sexual desires in a way that respects his wife (and himself), and makes him a better man. Only in such a union does the sexual act become life-giving and love-nurturing.

This is what Emba and the other women she interviewed are looking for. This is why their hearts feel empty, and why they feel used.

So much heartache and pain has been visited upon the younger generations because they bought into the diabolical lie of the sexual revolution: of “sex without consequences.” Let us hope that Emba’s essay starts a new and honest conversation about love and sexuality, fostering a radical return to an old wisdom.

Rediscovering Love Emba describes how at one point she came across Thomas Aquinas’ definition of love: “willing the good of the other.”

“Willing the good,” she explains, “means caring enough about another person to consider how your actions (and their consequences) might affect them — and then choosing

“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 1916)

28 DEATHBED CONVERSIONS

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Does God Forgive Deathbed Converts?

Anthony S. Layne

Does God forgive deathbed converts? Of course.

This shouldn’t even be a head-scratcher. However, some people don’t take kindly to the notion that God might allow Johnny-come-latelies into the kingdom.

Grumbled @barth_bro on Twitter, “I just worked my butt off to walk in righteousness my entire life. If Jesus forgives deathbed converts, I’m going to be livid.” Fr. Matthew Schneider quipped that he saw it right after tweeting, “Tell us you’re a Pelagian without telling us you’re a Pelagian.” My question was, “Ever heard of a guy named Dismas?”

Dismas, of course, is the name tradition has assigned to the Penitent Thief (Luke 23:39-43), the first of the deathbed converts.

The Workers in the Vineyard and the Prodigal Son That God would forgive last-minute converts is prefigured in the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Those who had worked the whole day complained that the owner gave the same wage to those who had only worked one hour. The owner’s response: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? … Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to

me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” The all-day workers weren’t entitled to limit the owner’s magnanimity.

The workers’ complaint echoes that of the elder brother in the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32): “For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” The father’s answer is gentler, reminding him that “everything that is mine is yours.” Had the elder son ever asked his father for anything?

Jesus’ earthly mission was not to confirm the righteous in their superiority but rather to retrieve the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14; cf. Luke 15:3-7). “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” he told his doubters. “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17; cf. Matthew 9:1213, Luke 5:31-32). The people he reached out to were those who recognised their need for God but felt cut off from Him because of their sins. Christ taught that God cherishes the repentant sinner no less than He does lifelong righteousness.

Performance Piety and Restorative Justice Patting yourself on the back for being righteous has always struck me as silly. It’s like expecting praise for showing up at work wearing clothes. (“We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” [Luke 17:7-10]). Moreover, such braggadocio reduces righteousness to the “performance piety” against which Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:1-18). It’s the Pharisee boasting to God that he isn’t like the tax collector (Luke 18:10-14).

Without humility, there’s little if anything to distinguish between true righteousness and self-righteous Pride.

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DEATHBED CONVERSIONS 29

Our tweeter’s attitude toward deathbed converts is understandable. Like the all-day workers or the elder brother, it strikes us unfair that those who jump in at the last moment should reap the same reward as those who have been labouring for it their whole lives. However, strictly speaking, Heaven isn’t a reward God owes to us for racking up so many earthly brownie points.

Thinking of it in such a way shows that our minds are still too egocentric, that we’re seeking not communion with God but rather a validation of our self-images.

We’re not thinking the way God thinks.

We take it as an undeniable premise that God is just.

However, we tend to think of justice primarily as retributive, that is, punishment for the wicked. It doesn’t often occur to us that justice can be restorative, returning matters to their proper state. In our case, that state is original justice, the relationship we believe existed between God and Man before the Fall. We ought to desire this relationship, not mere election into a divine Top Achievers Club. Remember, “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last” (Matthew 19:30, 20:16; cf. Mark 10:31).

When Does the Last Minute Come?

But doesn’t forgiveness of deathbed converts mean that we can go on sinning our whole lives and get into Heaven at the last minute? Yes, it does … if you know exactly when that last minute will strike. But Death doesn’t come on a schedule, nor are we always fully aware when the Grim Reaper comes for us. Some people die suddenly, even dramatically, while some slip into eternity gradually but with diminished capacity to realise it. A few people I’ve known weren’t even close to average life expectancy when they died. One was abducted, abused, and murdered.

All our tomorrows are contingent and preemptible.

Whether you’re a child or a centenarian, this very night, your soul may be demanded of you. And all the good intentions, all the reluctant promises you made to “get right with God someday”—what good will they do you then? (cf. Luke 12:16-21) The point of the Workers in the Vineyard parable is not so much that “it’s never too late” but instead that “it’s better late than never.” But it would be better to say that it’s never too early. Death comes unexpectedly for young and old alike.

Naturally, the Catholic Church urges early and frequent conversion of the soul. At the same time, the gospel doesn’t stress righteousness as much as it stresses love, especially love expressed in mercy and forgiveness.

Without love, righteousness is sterile (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Short of death itself, the Church has never

Extreme Unction - Rogier van der Weyden (1399 - 1464)

laid down a definitive age or time beyond which she can say, “No, you’ve waited too long! No salvation for you!” It may even be possible to repent, convert, and be forgiven when brought before Christ’s judgment seat (that’s a pious hope, not an infallible dogma).

Conclusion: Deathbed Converts Are Saved, Too I find it puzzling that so many of us know the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and yet fail to get the point, let alone incorporate it into our spiritual lives: You don’t achieve sainthood by looking down on sinners. The Pharisee is as dependent on God’s mercy as is the tax collector, yet his Pride convinces him that he doesn’t need it. Even St. Paul, chosen by Christ to be an apostle, worried that he could lose the “imperishable crown” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). The Lord is our judge, so we can’t acquit ourselves (1 Corinthians 4:4).

Nothing in the gospel message entitles us to judge deathbed converts excluded from salvation. If we truly live the gospel message, we should mourn those who refused to repent and embrace Christ even to the very end of their lives. Hey, if you don’t like the scoundrels and riff-raff God allows into the kingdom, you’re free to not go to the party yourself (cf. Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:15-24). But your righteousness doesn’t give you veto power over His guest list. Think about it this way: If God invites such people to His banquet, what does that say about you?

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

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

(Our Lady - Fatima July 13th 1917)

30 BOOKS

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Meath: Church of the Nativity, Johnstown, Navan, Co. Meath Cork & Ross: St Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork. Sundays 8:00am Sundays 1pm; First Fridays 11am; Holydays as announced. in the Dominican Rite; Ossory: St. Patrick’s, College Rd, Kilkenny; Sun 17.00.

Down & Connor: Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Raphoe: St. Patrick’s, Drumkeen, Donegal Sun 3pm.

Sunday: 8 and 11am, Mon-Fri (ex Thurs), 19:00. Thurs: 8am, Waterford: (FSSP) St. John’s Church, Parnell Street, Waterford 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.

Next issue of

Working Holidays & 1st Fridays; 08.00 and 19.00.

CatholicVoice On sale in churches, newsagents & bookshops from

3 June 2022

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

City – Every Sunday 1:30pm, Mon 1:00pm, Tues – Friday 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

Ferns: St Peter’s College Chapel, Summerhill Road, Wexford, Y35 XFN8. Elphin: St. John’s, Carraoe, Co Sligo ; Last Sunday Every Sunday 10am (Sung on 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month) Contact Killaloe: St. Joseph ‘s, Ennis, Co Clare: First Sunday 17:30 Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) Website www.fssp.ie

Tuam: St. John the Baptist, (Old Parish Knock, Co Mayo;

Galway: Chapel of St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s Road Second Sunday 17.30.

(ICKSP) Sun 15:00 Limerick: Sacred Heart, The Crescent (ICKSP)

Every effort has been made to ensure this list is up to date.

Sun 8am, 10.30am, 6pm; Mon-Weds 08.00 and 18.00; Thurs Please contact The Latin Mass Society of Ireland in the 08:00, Friday 18.00; Saturday 08.00 & 10:30 (followed by 1st event of any changes or errors.

Saturday devotions) Email: adminmass@latinmassireland.com

Visit our all-new website today!

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Web: www.mscmissions.ie Email: info@mscmissions.ie Tel: +353 (0)21 4545704

32 ADVERT

Catholic Voice

20th May 2022

Above Mass card, and similar Mass cards, may be bought on site in Knock Shrine or online @ www.knockshrine.ie for €4.00 each or by telephoning (094) 9375035/ (094) 9388100 from 9am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday.

FULL WITNESS TESTIMONY OF PATRICK BYRNE “I am sixteen years of age; I live quite near the chapel; I remember well the evening of the 21st August; it was Thursday, the evening before the Octave day. Dominick Byrne, junior, a namesake of mine, came to my house, and said that he had seen the biggest sight that ever he witnessed in his life. It was then after eight o’clock.

I came by the road on the west side of the church, I saw the figures clearly, fully, and distinctly, the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and that of a bishop, said to be St. John the Evangelist. (Young Byrne then told what he saw regarding the vision, just as it has been described already by several persons who were present. The young fellow showed by his hands and position how the image or apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of St. Joseph and St. John stood).

I remained only ten minutes, and then I went away. Al this happened between a quarter or so past eight o‘clock and half past nine.” (www.knockshrine.ie)

FULL WITNESS TESTIMONY OF CATHERINE MURRAY “I am living at Knock, I was staying at my grandmothers.

I followed my aunt and uncle to the chapel.

I then saw the likeness of the Blessed Virgin and that of St. Joseph and St. John, as I learned from those that were about where I was.

I saw them fully twenty minutes or thirty minutes.” (www.knockshrine.ie) 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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