A PICTURE IS WORTH A FEW WORDS, NO?

IN THIS DARK VATICAN TIMES, SOME LIGHT SHINES FORTH FROM OUR BLESSED MOTHER

Pope adds feast of Our Lady of Loreto to Roman Calendar

Pope Francis decrees that the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto shall be observed as an optional memorial on December 10, coinciding with the start of the Holy Year of the Lauretan Jubilee.

By Vatican News 

The Solemn Proclamation of the Lauretan Jubilee "Maria Regina et Janua Coeli" took place during Mass at the Basilica of the Holy House on Thursday, in the Italian city of Loreto.

Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, celebrated the Mass at 10 AM. 

Afterwards, a decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was proclaimed which inscribed the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto into the General Roman Calendar.

The decree notes that the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto, venerated by generations of pilgrims and honoured by numerous Popes, “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, leading all those who visit it to consider ‘the fullness of time’, when God sent his Son, born of a woman, as well as to meditate both on the words of the Angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call”.

The Congregation has also published the liturgical texts for the memorial.

(Story updated at 4:46 PM)

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

Prot. N. 404/19

DECREE

on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loretoto be inscribed in the General Roman Calendar

Since the Middle Ages veneration for the Holy House of Loreto has been the origin of that particular shrine which still today is visited by many faithful pilgrims in order to nourish their faith in the Word of God made flesh for us.

This shrine recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, leading all those who visit it to consider “the fullness of time”, when God sent his Son, born of a woman, as well as to meditate both on the words of the Angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call.  Overshadowed by the Spirit, the humble handmaid of the Lord so became the dwelling-place of divinity, the purist image of the holy Church.

Closely bound to the Apostolic See this shrine, praised by Popes and known throughout the world, has, over the years and no less than Nazareth in the Holy Land, been able to illustrate powerfully the evangelical virtues of the Holy Family.

In the Holy House, before the image of the Mother of the Redeemer and of the Church, Saints and Blesseds have responded to their vocation, the sick have invoked consolation in suffering, the people of God have begun to praise and plead with Mary using the Litany of Loreto, which is known throughout the world.  In a particular way all those who travel via aircraft have found in her their heavenly patron.

In light of this, Pope Francis has decreed, by his own authority, that the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on 10 December, the day on which the feast falls in Loreto, and celebrated every year.  This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth and religious to imitate the virtues of that perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the Head of the Church also accepted us as her own.

Therefore the new memorial must appear in all Calendars and Liturgical Books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours; the relative texts are attached to this decree and their translations, approved by the Episcopal Conferences, will be published after confirmation by this Dicastery.

Anything to the contrary nothwithstanding.

From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 7 October 2019, the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary.

Robert Cardinal Sarah
Prefect

MY PARISHIONER, WASHINGTON NATIONALS PITCHING COACH, PAUL MENHART, WINS THE WORLD SERIES! HOW COOL IS THAT!

When the Washington Nationals' pitching coach Paul Menhart is in our parish of St. Anne's, he is often a daily communicant.

This video says it all about Paul which you can view by pressing here.

OKAY! IT’S TIME FOR MY GENERATION AND MUCH OLDER TO DIE OFF TO PUT IT IN NICE TERMS

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone leads the rosary at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption before Mass to conclude the Novena for Life Aug. 11. (CNS/Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Human Life & Dignity/Debra Greenblat)

Aging, gray haired and hairless, pot bellied San Francisco priests voice frustrations with Cordileone at convocation

Laid bare, they said, (the aging gray haired priests) were tensions over muddy communications, lack of authentic consultation, low clergy morale, unilateral initiatives by Cordileone, and the archbishop's embrace of "the model of a pre-Vatican II church," in the words of one pastor.

Some attendees, however, told NCR that Cordileone enjoys steady clerical "appreciation and agreement" with his ecclesiology among many priests, notably younger men (who have hair which is dark, bright eyed and energetic for Divine Truth and orthodoxy).

Read the rest at the National Chismatic Reporter

GREAT CATHOLIC HALLOWEEN OUTFITS

GO WASHINGTON NATIONALS!

The Washington National's pitching coach is Paul Menhart, a member of Saint Anne Church, my parish, here in Richmond Hill, Georgia. How cool is that. Of course I am rooting for the Nats!

How cool is that!!!!

Richmond Hill resident Paul Menhart part of historic rise with Washington Nationals

IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBT THAT THE CHURCH HAS RETURNED TO THE CRAZY, REDICULOUS AND OUTRAGEOUS 1970'S MENTALITY, DOUBT NO MORE!

October 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A prayer to Pachamama, the “Mother Earth” venerated by indigenous tribes such as the Aymara and Quechua in the Andes but also in the northern plains of Argentina and in Brazil near Bolivia and Peru, has been found in an official booklet of the Fondazione Missio (Mission Foundation) of the Italian bishops’ conference.

On the first anniversary of 9/11, I was a part of a group of ecumenical ministers who planned an inter-faith prayer service held in Augusta in former Catholic Church, now called Sacred Heart Cultural Center.

In keeping with Catholic sensibilities, no one was asked to join any particular group in verbally praying anything. All songs were agreed upon and usually quite generic. I think we had Christians, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, Muslims, Hindu and Jewish and maybe one or two others.

Each representative prayed in their religious tradition. We had no pagans, though, although Wiccans are big in Augusta.

But now the Italian Bishops' Conference printed this in a brochure and yes it is outrageous:

Translation of Prayer to Pachamama:

Pachamama of these places,
drink and eat as much as you like this offer,
so that this land may be fruitful.
Pachamama, good Mother
Be propitious! Be propitious!
Let the oxen walk well,
and that one does not drink.
Make the seed taste good,
that nothing bad happens to her,
that frost does not disrupt it,
that produces good food i.
We ask you:
give us all.
Be propitious! Be propitious!
(Prayer to the Mother Earth of the Inca peoples)

RENEWED PROBLEMS WITH BLOGSPOT

Yesterday I noticed I was not getting any emails containing comments on my posts. I thought to myself, self, this is very odd, not one comment on the myriad of posts I posted yesterday. What's up with that? Is there a boycott going on? Have all my fans left the Church over the Amazon Synod?

So finally, last night I decided to actually go into the bowels of my blog to see if there were any comments and sure enough there were plenty!

This happened before. Without explanation I cease to get emailed comments and I have to go several extra steps to get into the bowels of the blog to post comments that are in the "awaiting moderation" section of the bowel.

So I will be slower in posting comments until blogspot fixes the problem which took months the last time this happened. 

JUST WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CLERICALIZE THE LAITY AND LAICIZE THE CLERGY?

Pope Francis has spoken often about not clericalizing the laity. With so much of Pope Francis' soundbytes, I am never really sure what His Holiness means.

I do recall in the 1980's having a conversation with Bishop Lessard about lay ministries. He said that the laity shouldn't be "Churchified" by being defined with what they do for the institutional church in terms of the liturgical roles opened to them after Vatican II such as lectors and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Nor should the paid positions in the church or even volunteer positions in the Church define their role, such as DRE's, catechists, pastoral assistants and Catholic school employees.

He said that for the vast majority of lay Catholics their role is defined by what they do at home, making their homes the Church in miniature and what they do the the public square, in the secular settings they find themselves. It is there that their Catholicism should attract others to consider the Church, not by prosyletizing, but by simply been a faithful, good Catholic without wearing one's religion on their sleeve.

I have found homeschooling families epitomize what Vatican II actually desired for the laity. They see themselves as the primary educators of their children both in the religious and secular aspects of education. They strive to live their faith in the home and remind me of what Catholic schools were like when religious sisters were in the majority as principals and teachers.

I just received a comment on another post that tells us of the role of the laity too. To become clergy and religious since every member of the clergy or a religious order are laity who desire to devote themselves to the institutional Church and her ministries:

Religious orders of men and women, who do much of the same work in medicine, education, social services, evangelization, caring for the elderly and the dying, etc., were not presaged by the "Deaconesses of the past." They were apostolic undertakings, based on the Great Commandment of loving God and neighbor. MEN's and women's religious orders spring from a common past, the Great Commission.

A BRIGHT IDEA!

This is a very good news and certainly not controversial:

(Pixabay)

VATICAN |  OCT. 28, 2019

Pope Francis Changes Name of Vatican Archive

Change from Vatican Secret Archive to Vatican Apostolic Archive is to avoid associations with the evolving interpretation of the word ‘secret.’

PRIEST IN MY NEIGHBORING DIOCESE OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA DENIES PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOE BIDEN HOLY COMMUNION

The news story below is from the secular press. I hope I am not placed in this position. I doubt that I would deny a Catholic Presidential candidate on the spot. I would hope that I would have been informed that he was coming to Mass first and would have time to consult with my bishop. If the bishop said he shouldn't be giving Holy Communion, I would make it clear to the candidate's entourage that the candidate should not approach to receive Holy Communion and if he does approach he will receive a blessing.

But here's the rub. We have so many lay people distributing Holy Communion, most would not take it upon themselves to deny someone Holy Communion. In fact, as a pastor, I would be horrified to find out lay people are denying communicants Holy Communion. So what's a pastor to do????

Florence, SC is at the merging of I-20 (it's eastern ending) and I-95, about two hours east of Augusta, Georgia, or if you like, North Augusta, South Carolina. 

FLORENCE, S.C. — Former Vice President Joe Biden, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race, was denied Holy Communion on Sunday morning at a Florence church.

Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed Monday afternoon that he had denied the presidential candidate Holy Communion because of his stance on abortion. Biden, a lifelong Catholic, had attended the church’s 9 a.m. Mass.

MY OPINION ON THREE THINGS ABOUT THE SYNOD

My first opinion has to do with married men being ordained priests. This is a matter of discipline and the door was flung wide by Popes Pius XII, John Paul II and Benedict XVI who allowed Protestant ministers to become Catholic priests.

My beef with that was that the Church was allowing married Protestant men, who not only were not validly ordained to Holy Orders to be ordained priests but these men weren't even validly Confirmed, which is necessary for Holy Orders.

Thus married Protestant men had to be received into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church by a Profession of Faith, then actually receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. I suspect some had to be conditionally re-baptized depending on their Protestant denomination's way of baptizing. Then they got to be ordained deacons first then priests. Somehow there is an injustice in all of this with fully initiated Catholic men, like permanent deacons, who might feel a call to the priesthood.

Thus married men being ordained priests doesn't agitate me. I have known and worked with married priests, one a parochial vicar in Augusta for the 14 years I was there.

My second opinion has to do with women deacons as the Catholic Church today understands deacons under the guidance of the Risen Lord who is the Head of the Church. For Pope Francis to allow ordination of women to the diaconate, it would be invalid and a sacrilege in profaning this first stage of Holy Orders. It could invalidate His Holiness papacy, but others with more knowledge on this would have to chime in

My third opinion has to do with conversion to ecology to save the planet. Certainly the Church has a right to speak out against the destruction of our planet and to encouarage ecological safeguards. Yes the Church can recommend recycleing, the banning of plastics and other things that assist in a good ecology. But this can't be made a doctrine of the faith as it is in the realm of science and yes politics.

The Church has to be very careful as not to identify with any political solution when there are valid plural opinions in this regard.

For example when it comes to abortion, the Church should not get into political rhetoric about it as though a human life is a political football. All human life, according the moral teachings of the Church is loved by God from the moment of conception no matter how that conception takes place including morally, immorally or criminally. Even a child conceived in a testtube is loved by God and deserves to be born. It is a mortal sin to kill a human being and even more grave when a person cannot defend himself. This deserves sanctions from the Church like excommunication.

But can the Church mandate Catholics to recycle under the penalty of mortal sin? Or to agree with a particular political perspective offered as theories by scientists about global warming and climate change. In my opinion no!

We can say gluttony is a mortal sin, but each person has a right to determine what gluttony means for them. There is a great deal of latitude in this regard. 

IS THE SKY REALLY FALLING OR IS IT SIMPLY THAT A GREAT SCHISM IS HAPPENING BEFORE OUR VERY EYES?

Synod bishops return for the final day of the synod and also returning in their cassocks.

I often wonder how the Great Schism occurred as slow as communication was way back then. Today with instant communication and in real time in a highly opinionated Church and world, will the current looming Greater Schism make the Great Schism look rather lesser?

Pray for a Miracle — An Initial Reaction to the Close of the Synod

Pray for an apostolic exhortation that glorifies and lifts up Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.

Msgr. Charles Pope

I, like many of you, feel overwhelmed by the events of the past month in Rome. Many an evening, late into the night, I have come before the Lord in the rectory chapel in lament for the confusion and chaos in the Church, the Lord’s beautiful bride and our mother. Oftentimes too in the fourth watch of the night, between 3 and 4 a.m., I return to the chapel, for with my cares I cannot long rest.
Reported from Rome are terrible and seemingly impious things at worst, and confusing and ambiguous things at best. In the final document of the synod are included proposals for married priests on a wide scale and women “deacons.” The Church is currently deeply divided and, I would argue, on the brink of schism, if the Pope includes such proposals in his apostolic exhortation and plan. We must pray for him as never before to hold the line, much as Pope Paul VI miraculously held the line in 1968 when he wrote Humanae 
Vitae, upholding the Church’s perennial view of the nature and purpose of human sexuality and the ancient forbiddance of contraception. He did this against pressure from the spirit of the age — a pressure that was even stronger than the pressure Pope Francis currently encounters. And, like Francis, Paul VI was no conservative and was very friendly with the agents of radical change. This makes Humanae Vitae all the more miraculous, and we must allow this to give us hope now that Pope Francis will issue a document that does not take us over the brink.

Read the rest as the National Catholic Register.

THE GASLIGHT EFFECT ; IS AUSTEN IVEREIGH ENABLING IT AND/OR CONDONING IT?

One of the causes of abuse in the Church is when anyone places another human being, be he the pope, a bishop, a priest, a deacon or some other person on the same level as Jesus Christ.

There are a variety of abuses, be these physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual. Yes there is spiritual abuse.

No pope is Christ. Every pope is simply His representative. No pope has an inside track to the Faith that isn't available to every single Catholic who has eyes to read and ears to hear.

Thus Austen Ivereigh's comparison of Pope Francis to Jesus Christ is quite troubling in this day and age and what the Church has been experiencing for way too long. You can read Crux's article on Austen Ivereigh's thoughts HERE, but here is the money byte I write about. What do you think?

Those who criticize Pope Francis do so from a variety of positions, he said, but “it’s quite striking” to study the stories about the Pharisees’ opposition to Jesus in the Gospels and notice the connections and, especially, how afraid they are of Jesus.

“There are people, I think, who so badly misread the pope because of what is going on inside them,” he said. “I think Pope Francis has deeply threatened people who consider themselves good and consider themselves the guardians of Catholic doctrine.”

For the Pharisees, and perhaps for many of Pope Francis’s critics, he said, the sticking point may be that “Jesus proclaims the universality of God’s love, that religion cannot be arrogated to become an identity which is then used against people and as a way of defining me against you and, therefore, he effectively takes away their power. Or at least they feel that way.”

My final comment: I don't think he realizes it, but what Ivereigh just said about Pope Francis "effectively taking away his critics power" is one of the examples above of the gaslight manipulation. Perhaps Ivereigh might want to reconsider placing Pope Francis or any pope in the role of God (Jesus Christ) in relationship to the Pharisees. Simple place the pope on the same level as Saint Peter and the rebuke that God, meaning Jesus Christ, offered Saint Peter.

A CRITIQUE OF THE SYNOD BY A MISSIONARY APPOINTED BY POPE FRANCIS TO THE SYNOD

This is copied from Sandro Magister. You can read full article HERE:

But as a guide for interpreting them it is advisable to take a look first at the appraisal of this synod published yesterday in multiple languages - including Chinese - by “Asia News,” the agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.

Its author is a Uruguayan missionary invited to the synod by Pope Francis, Martín Lasarte Topolanski, whom the readers of Settimo Cielo already know and appreciate from a previous commentary of his.

He lists, for this synod, the six things that he liked and the nine that he disliked.

The complete text of this dual “vote” is on “Asia News.” While here is reproduced only an abbreviated summary of his votes against.

*

THE NINE THINGS ABOUT THIS SYNOD THAT I DIDN’T LIKE

by Martín Lasarte

1. Too much energy was dedicated to internal Church problems, especially the viri probati and female deaconate. The issues of the “viri probati” and female deaconate, which did not generate any broad agreement, used up a lot of time to the detriment of other topics over which there was agreement.

2. Regional self-centredness. Synodality with those who think like me; autonomy and pluralism with those who think differently, as in the case of the sister Churches of Asia, Europe and Africa. I think more should have been said about the synodality of the universal Church with respect to the ordained ministries.

3. There was no deeper self-criticism by the Church. I am referring here to the poor pastoral outreach of the last 50 years among the various Amazonian ecclesial communities. What are the causes of such pastoral poverty and barrenness? In my opinion, the issues of the social ideologisation, and the lack of a credible, coherent and resplendent testimony to the sanctity of ministers (which explain religious and priestly dropouts and equivocal lives) were not adequately addressed.

4. New patches for old clothes. In my opinion, the main issues associated with evangelisation were not discussed. What are the new ways proposed by the Synod? Only new structures and the ordination of “viri probati.” It seems to me that this new thing is extremely thin. In my view, the new garment that we must don with new fervour is a problem of "faith", i.e. how to wear Christ.

5. There was talk of an “Amazonian rite” for the liturgy. There is a risk of falling into theoretical experimentation in a pastoral lab. Undoubtedly, the inculturation of the Gospel in the liturgy and the life of Amazonian Christian communities is indispensable, but this must be done in real life, little by little, with reasonable adaptation and acclimatisation of what is truly authentic in the culture to truly convey the Christian mystery with original symbols and expressions, avoiding superficial and generic “folklorisation”.

6. Clericalisation of the laity. We could have solved the problem of would-be priestly ordinations for married men through the usual ways that already exist within the Church. Unfortunately, the “topic” of the Synod was the ordination of married men, whilst other topics remained in the shadows.

7. The secular vision of ministries, particularly that of women as “ordained deaconesses” was another topic, which came up all the time, with very civil motivations, under the strong pressure of the dominant culture. I think I saw a certain parliamentary sagacity: “We are representatives of the Amazonian peoples and we must carry forward the proposals put forward by them”.

8. The Church is in danger of becoming an NGO. The Church's mystery, life and action would be reduced to various advocacy and social service activities. Such reductionism seems to me to be strongly present in the sensitivity of a number of Synod participants.

9. The atmosphere of the Synod was fairly serene, fraternal and respectful, even though at the end some participants presented things rather dialectically. On the one hand, the Pharisee club was tied to the doctrine, frightened by the new, thus closed to the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, those who listen to the people (“sensus fidei”), without fear, are open to what is new and so are docile to the Holy Spirit… We must admire a Holy Spirit that came so well prepared and organised.

*

PACHAMAMA NOT AT SAINT PETERS, THE CRY OF POOR CATHOLICS IS HEARD

NOT INTO SAINT PETER’S OR DECLARED OUR LADY OF THE AMAZON, CO-REDEMPTRIX OF ALL CREATION AND ITS ECOLOGY!

THE TWO POPES DUKE IT OUT AND GUESS WHO IS AT THE CENTER OF IT AGAIN? ARCHBISHOP GEORG GAENSWEIN WHO KNOWS THE MIND AND THOUGHTS AND WORDS OF THE CURRENT POPE EMERITUS (OR IS HE) BENEDICT XVI!

Archbishop Georg Gänswein; Below: Bishop Evaristo Spengler. (Edward Pentin photos)

Blogs |  Oct. 26, 2019 

PRESS TITLE FOR ARTICLE FROM EDWARD PENTIN:

Archbishop Gaenswein: Claim Benedict XVI Opened Path for Women Deacons ‘Totally Absurd’

The Pope Emeritus’ personal secretary firmly rejects Brazilian synod father’s claim that a 2009 papal decree paved the way for women deacons. 

Edward Pentin

And then there is this little ditty from the same  Archbishop Georg Gänswein:

‘Vatican Fake news’ treatment of Pope Benedict letter about Francis ‘made a mess’: New book

MY CLAIRVOYANCE (YES, I KNOW THIS IS PAGAN, BUT WHAT THE HECK) TELLS ME THAT POPE FRANCIS WILL DECLARE PACHAMAMA TO BE IN FACT OUR LADY OF THE AMAZON NOW TO BE VENERATED, NOT WORSHIPPED, AS THE HIDDEN MANIFESTATION OF OUR LADY TO THE PAGAN AMAZONIAN PEOPLES AS THE CO-REDEMPTRIX OF ALL GRACES TO ALL PEOPLES!

What has happened to Pachamama  sounds eerily similar to Our Lady of Aparecida a devotion that Pope Francis truly embraces.

Vandals take Pachamama, throw her into the River and she is recovered by a miracle of God in time for the closing session of the Amazon Synod and the final Mass at St. Peter's where Pope Francis will say that the Roman Waters of the River Tiber cleanse the image of all pagan mythology and now reveals her to be actually Our Lady of the Amazon, an Icon worthy of veneration with our Lord in Our Lady's Womb, similar to the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Then the Pope, to the delight of traditional Catholics as well as all Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians will declare through Our Lady of the Amazon an infallible dogma of Our Lady as the Co-Redemptrix! Read more about that HERE!

From Wikipedia: Our Lady of Aparecida (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora Aparecida or Portuguese: Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida [ˈnɔsɐ siˈɲɔɾɐ dɐ kõsejˈsɐ̃w ɐpɐɾeˈsidɐ]) a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the traditional form associated with the Immaculate Conception associated with a clay statue bearing the same title. The image is widely venerated by Brazilian Catholics, who consider her as the principal patroness of Brazil.^[1] Historical accounts state that the statue was originally found by three fishermen who miraculously caught many fish after invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

The statue is currently housed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Aparecida, São Paulo, Brazil. 

Colonial documents and papal bulls have referred to the image as Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida. The Roman Rite feast day of Our Lady of Aparecida is on October 12, which since 1980 is also a public holiday in Brazil. The building in which it is venerated was granted the title of minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and is the largest Marian shrine in the world,^[3] being able to hold up to 45,000 worshippers.^[4]
 
Controversy about the statue was ignited in May 1978 by an intruder who stole the clay statue, which was smashed as he was apprehended, from its shrine, and again in 1995, when a Protestant minister insulted and vandalized a copy of the statue on Brazilian national television.

HOW MANY LAY PEOPLE FEEL THIS WAY?

Update! Please note by widening photo you will see that Pachamama is placed in front of the pope at  last day of the Amazon Synod. This photo is the lead photo on Saturday’s Vatican News webpage.

Are we at a tipping point? I have wondered what the laity think of all the confusion coming out of Rome. I don’t have a good sense of the laity’s feeling. I do know that the sexual abuse scandal and the ongoing reporting of events decades ago has been a stomach blow to faithful Catholics and many Catholics, not all marginal ones, have disengaged from the Church.

But the polarization that Pope Francis is causing leaves so many wondering about him and what appears to be an arrogant, manipulative, dictatorial agenda.

I received this anonymous comment on another post. I also had a priest friend tell me yesterday that after Mass a lay person, who goes to daily Mass, is thinking about leaving the Church with this latest Pacchamama debacle and the things she has heard discussed at the Amazon synod.

Here is the comment. What would you say to this faithful Catholic skating on thin ice?

Father, what do we do now? I am very very distressed about all that has been going on. I like everyone else has endured decades of liturgical abuse, the Faith not being properly taught in schools. Liberal nuns, pedophile priests, bishops and cardinals and popes protecting and promoting evil clerics, statues of Luther being brought into the Vatican, popes kissing the feet of apostates and pagans, financial scandals and now the pope bringing pagan idols! It’s too much. I thought the gates of Hell will not prevail. It sure looks Hell has prevailed. If the pope venerates in any way those demon idols in St. Peter’s, WHAT DO WE DO THEN? 

This is a serious question. I feel completely and utterly abandoned. I have carried a particular cross (like everyone has) for over 45 years. And now I feel like I wasted my life. What was the point if nothing is a sin, if adulterers can go to communion without giving up their sin; why should I have bothered all these years trying to live a good moral life. Why! It’s too much. A pope apologizing for pagan idols being removed from the house of God! It’s too much. The Church does NOT belong to Jorge Bergoglio and the Jesuit order!. Why will no bishop or cardinal even make an attempt to stop this man. It was lay people that had to remove those filthy idols, it should have been a bishop in broad daylight. Father what do we do. I am doubting my Faith. I don’t know what to do now. I feel like I have been living a lie my whole life. 

THERE MAY BE SOME TRUTH TO THIS!

SPEAKING ABOUT VANDALS IN ROME, WHAT ABOUT IN MY DIOCESE!

I am sure the National Chismatic Reporter will applaud this verdict in Brunswick, Georgia just south of Richmond Hill in the Diocese of Savannah!

Anti-nuke protesters convicted in break-in at Navy sub base

Seven defendants broke into Submarine Base Kings Bay, damaged property

By Associated Press

BRUNSWICK, GA. (AP) — Seven Roman Catholic activists have been convicted of federal crimes for breaking into a Navy submarine base in Georgia to protest nuclear weapons.

The defendants face potential sentences of more than 20 years in prison after being found guilty Thursday of trespassing, destruction of government property and other counts in U.S. District Court in Brunswick.

Prosecutors showed the jury videos the activists took of themselves using wire cutters to enter a locked security gate at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base on April 4, 2018. Inside the base they spray-painted anti-nuclear messages and hammered on an outdoor display before being arrested.

Defense attorneys argued in pretrial hearings that the activists should not be prosecuted because they acted on sincere religious beliefs. The judge ruled they couldn't use that defense at trial.

I PREDICTED THIS!

Pope apologizes for theft of Pachamama, says she could be back Sunday 

John L. Allen Jr.

• Oct 25, 2019
  EDITOR

In this photo taken on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, members of Amazon indigenous populations walk during a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession from St. Angelo Castle to the Vatican. In foreground is a wooden statue portraying a naked pregnant woman. Pope Francis’s meeting on the Amazon is wrapping up after three weeks of debate over married priests, the environment _ and the destruction of indigenous statues that underscored the willingness of conservatives to violently vent their opposition to the pope. (Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini).

ROME - It’s become the symbolically defining storyline of the 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, and on Friday the drama surrounding the “Pachamama,” the indigenous statuettes of a naked pregnant woman that were stolen from a Rome church and tossed into the Tiber River, took yet another turn with an unexpected papal apology.

As he opened the afternoon session of the Oct. 6-27 synod Friday, Pope Francis addressed the theft of the statues on Oct. 21.

Saying he was speaking as the “Bishop of Rome,” meaning the head of the local church in the Eternal City, Francis requested “pardon” from anyone who was offended by the theft of the statues and their being thrown into the river.

According to a video of his remarks that made the rounds on social media, Francis said the statues had been displayed “without idolatry” in the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, located about halfway down the broad Via della Conciliazione that leads away from St. Peter’s Square.

Francis also added that Roman law enforcement officials have recovered the discarded statues and are holding them for the moment at a police station.

Friday’s apology caps what has been a month-long drama surrounding the statues, which first made an appearance during an Oct. 4 indigenous prayer service staged in the Vatican gardens in the presence of the pope.

Traditionalist and conservative critics immediately objected to what they saw as the idolatry of a pagan image unfolding on Vatican grounds, while some papal defenders insisted that the image was actually an indigenous depiction of the Visitation, when a pregnant Mary visited her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist
.
Eventually Vatican spokesmen rejected both of those explanations, saying the images, which are only about a foot and a half tall, are simply expressions of indigenous reverence for life and devoid of any particular religious or spiritual significance.

“We know that some things in history can have many interpretations, and even in the Church you can find things that come from the past, but the statue simply represents life, period, while trying to see symbols of paganism is seeing evil where it’s not there,” said Italian layman Paolo Ruffini, the Vatican’s top communications official.

That did not quiet the controversy, however, as opinion on both sides of the debate sprouted both in social media and in Catholic news agencies.

In the meantime, after the images were carried during the synod’s opening procession Oct. 6 from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Vatican’s Synod Hall, they were displayed in the Traspontina church, where some bishops taking part in the summit have been conducting liturgies after the synod’s daily work is over.

On Tuesday, someone took public credit for the theft and discarding of the images: A 53-year-old Italian named Davide Fabbri, who goes by the pseudonym of “Padre Davide” and calls himself a “deacon exorcist” but, according to Italian media, is not actually ordained by the Catholic Church.

Fabbri released a video message on Youtube saying he was the one who took the statues, claiming they represented “satanism.”

Fabbri is a well-known personality in far-right political circles in Italy, who was once given a suspended jail sentence and a fine for a public defense of fascism in violation of Italian hate speech laws and for claiming, without confirmation, to be a distant relative of Benito Mussolini. Fabbri has also been filmed wearing clerical outfits during political rallies staged by Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right Lega party known for its hardline anti-immigrant stance and the country’s former Deputy Prime Minister.

In the meantime, Pope Francis told members of the Synod of Bishops that the commander of the Italian military police, who have the statues, suggested they could be displayed during the closing Mass on Sunday, and that he’s asked the Vatican’s Secretary of State to respond.

DIVINE LAW OR HUMAN LAW, THAT IS THE QUESTION AND CARDINAL MULLER ANSWERS IT

You can see Cardinal Muller's answer to the question To follow Divine Law or Human Law, that is the question by pressing this sentence.

And coming to a theater near you:

AS CATHOLIC IDENTITY AND COHESIVENESS ARE ERODED BY THE RETURN OF THE 1970’S SPIRIT OF VATICAN II PLACED ON STEROIDS BY SYNODALITY, WILL WE SEE EVEN BIGGER DECLINES IN CATHOLICISM TO MATCH WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LIBERAL PROTESTANTISM WHICH SYNODALITY IS BASED UPON?

Decline in Hispanic Catholics a ‘direct challenge’ to the Church in the US

We have forgotten our pre-Vatican II history or it is not being made known for ideological reasons.

For the most part, Catholicism in both South, Central and North America was quite strong prior to the Second Vatican Council.

When it came to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Mass was in Latin and for the most part celebrated the same way in every country. There may have been some vernacular hymns and certainly the homily was in the vernacular.

Inculturation came in the form of popular devotions. These were allowed in the vernacular and borrowed heavily from the culture of the peoples. Mexican and Filipino popular devotions differ greatly from Anglo-North American popular devotions of this period. 

After Vatican II, there was a loss of the cohesiveness of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered to unite culture rather than divide. 

Yes, it was true, especially in the northeast, for ethnic parishes to develop in close proximity to each other. But the Mass was in Latin and popular devotions of the culture of the people.

Today, though, we try to set up “ethnic” parishes in the same parish and its facilities thus dividing what could have been united parishes liturgically in term of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into Balkanized subgroups of various Mass times. 

Thus the Mass no longer unites but divides parishes with a variety of ethnic realities. The loss of popular devotions forces inculturation onto the Mass further fragmenting parishes. 

For example, my parish is beginning to gain quite a number of Hispanics of Mexican origin. There is a desire now to add a Sunday Spanish Mass. But when I see our current Masses in English filled with a variety of ethnic peoples, not just Spanish, but from African, Europe and other continents, I would hate to start segregating our parish according the language groups.

If only we had maintained the Latin Mass and really focused on popular devotions as the means to address inculturation. 

Maybe we would not be losing so many of our Hispanics to Protestantism which we have tried to mimick in the last 50 years.

GOOD FOR CARDINAL CUPICH!

Unfortunately it keeps the door open for one three minute eulogy at a Funeral Mass. Good luck with that!

Chicagoland

Funeral Guidelines

By Chicago Catholic 
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 

"WHEN THE TIME COMES"

A Resource Guide for when Catholics enter Eternal Life

It is difficult for many people to talk about their mortality and that of their loved ones.

Death is an uncomfortable subject, but it is an eventuality we all must face. These guidelines are designed to help families and loved ones in their time of greatest need by calling on the resources of our rich theological and pastoral tradition. They are offered in the hope that they will provide  a pathway for making decisions when the time comes to commend a loved one to the merciful embrace of the Lord, but also as a reminder that our faith provides us comfort and consolation in a time of loss.

• Vigil Services (Wakes) are usually conducted either in the funeral home or in the parish church on the eve of the Funeral Mass. As a vigil, the faithful keep watch with the family in prayer, confident of God’s mercy and hopeful as they find strength in Christ’s presence.  As the first gathering of friends and family of the deceased, this Scripture or Evening Prayer Service also allows those unable to attend the Funeral Mass to pay their respects and provide support, prayers, and comfort to all those mourning the loss of a loved one. The hectic pace of our society could easily lead us to sideline the importance of taking time to grieve and comfort the grieving. Yet, experience teaches us that this important component of saying goodbye to loved ones has great value in bringing healing, as we comfort one another as the Body of Christ.

• Evening Vigils – These should be scheduled the night before the Funeral Mass and the burial, but variations by exception are possible.
• Eulogies, stories, and favorite songs are most appropriately shared during this time of visitation at the Evening Vigil.

• The Funeral Mass – Celebrating Mass with the body present has been the norm in our Catholic tradition.  On such occasions Christians join as a community of faith in the work of redemption taking place as the Risen Lord receives the deceased. At the funeral Mass we recall that just as we become one with Christ through our Baptism into his death, so now we pray that the deceased will be one with Christ in his Resurrection.

• Eulogies and Personal Remembrances, as noted above, are more appropriate during the Evening Vigil or at the reception following the funeral. Experience shows that sharing personal remarks at the Funeral Mass can be inopportune for a number of reasons. It can create hard feelings if hurtful things of the past are raised or create discomfort in ill-advised attempts at humor. There are also concerns in view of past experiences that eulogies can overshadow in length and attention the Funeral Mass itself, especially if those offering words turn the Church’s rites into a celebration of life that focuses only on the accomplishments of the deceased’s past, with scant attention to our faith in the resurrection.  With that said, in a desire to be pastorally sensitive to the family of the deceased, the following norms have been established after consultation with the Presbyteral Council and the approval of the cardinal.

• The pastor of the parish may allow a reflection by one individual. This is to take place between the Post- Communion prayer and the end of Mass. The personal reflections should be limited to 3 minutes and are to be presented in writing to the pastoral minister assisting the family in advance of the service.                                                                                                                   
• Christian Burial has always been understood as one of the Corporal Works of Mercy. In accord with ancient Christian custom, the burial or entombing of the bodies of the dead takes place in a cemetery, which means “resting place”.  The Rite of Committal begins at the conclusion of the funeral rites and may be celebrated beside the open grave or place of interment.  In this way, the Christian community expresses the sure and certain hope that, with all those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, the deceased is now welcomed into the glory of the Risen Lord, joining with all the saints in seeing God face to face. Accordingly, the following should be kept in mind:

• Full-body burial is the preference of the Church.
• The cremated remains of the human body are to be placed in sacred ground and are never to be scattered or separated. Burying the remains of the faithful confirms one's faith in the resurrection of the body. The teachings of the Church call for us to care for the cremated remains of the human body with the same respect and dignity that we care for casketed remains of our loved ones.

• Visits to the cemeteries where deceased loved ones are laid to rest are encouraged out of regard to the need to pray for the dead, but also to bring healing to those who remain. Certain days for such visits have become traditional, the first being All Souls Day on November 2, but also Memorial Day, Veterans Day and the day of the deceased’s death.

I AM A PROUD CARD CARRYING CONSERVATIVE, ORTHODOX, CATHOLIC FUNDAMENTALIST

Is Cardinal Gerhard Müller what the Vatican means by fundamentalist Catholics? Well then, crown me with many crowns since that is what I am too! Who knew I was a Catholic into the fundamentals of the Church desiring to conserve the Catholic Faith especially from the heresy of Gnosticism?

October 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has declared his approval of a strong critique of the Amazon Synod and its working document which was published last week by Professor Douglas Farrow in First Things. While praising Farrow’s article as “very fitting,” the Cardinal went on to lament Church leaders who seem not to realize that the borders to the “old paganism” of “idolatry and superstition” are currently being crossed. 

Cardinal Müller's full statement

A very fitting article. Here [in Rome], one does not hear anything. Nothing gets released to the outside, except that there is an immense pressure placed on those who think in an orthodox and Catholic way. What a state of affairs it is that not even bishops realize when the border to the old paganism has been crossed. That is where the true “conservatives” or “arch-reactionaries” are, when one interprets these terms in the proper sense of Christ who is the fresh newness of God which cannot be surpassed.

For example, before and during the time of St. Irenaeus of Lyon – who has given to us his five books “Against Heresies” which are today again highly relevant – some allowed themselves to “be wrongly captivated by so-called Gnosis. Some who professed it, have erred and gone away from the path of the Faith” (1 Tim 6:21). Irenaeus had earlier spent some time in Rome and had fought there against the Christian-Gnostic heresies. In the 2nd century, he is the most important defender of the Roman Primacy, but that did not hinder him from personally calling upon both Pope Eleutherius and Pope Victor I to choose wiser and more just approaches. 

Man is only obliged to obey God inwardly and outwardly, whereas obedience toward ecclesial and civil superiors is merely conditional with regard to their own authority for the community which they lead and for which they are to be held accountable before God. That is why it can be necessary in one's conscience to refuse to obey a concrete order, without thereby putting into question the institution of the ecclesial superiors (Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. II-II q. 104 a. 5). When St. Paul withstood St. Peter – who was hierarchically clearly his superior – to his face, it was not a correctio fraterna in the private realm, but, rather, it was a public defense of the Faith in its fullness and in light of its inward and outward consequences. Since, when it comes to the defense of the Faith, all apostles and bishops have the same responsibilities, St. Paul himself could, as an Apostle, publicly correct the Apostle St. Peter on an equal level, without thereby putting into question his office, which was entrusted to him by Christ. (Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. II-II q. 33 a. 4)

“To think that one is better than one's superior seems to be presumptuous pride. But to consider oneself better in certain respects has nothing to do with presumption, because, in this life, there is no one who does not have any deficiency at all. It should also be noted that the one who admonishes his superior in God's love does not therefore think himself higher (see Ibid, II-II q. 33 a. 4 ad 4); but, rather, he only gives help to the one who, the higher he stands, is in greater danger,' as St. Augustine (Epistle 211) says.”

Let us say only so much with regard to the current fashion of the ignorant ones to divide the Church into two camps – the enemies of the Pope and the friends of the Pope – as if the personal-private relationship with a particular Pope were the basis of the Roman Primacy with respect to the Doctrine of Faith and Morals, and given the hierarchical communio of the bishops with the Pope.

The papacy is of divine right and therefore is not based on the numbers of Facebook-Followers nor on the fickle approval of journalists and opportunists.

The clear distinction between Faith in God and paganism in St. Paul must not be bypassed: Because people “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles....they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” (Rom. 1:23 seq.)

The adoration of God is the true theology of liberation from fear, fright, and insecurity which come to us from the material world and our fellow men. And only with the help of the Gospel and Christ's Grace can a culture develop its positive influence and be freed from the power of evil. 

Objectively, idolatry and superstition are the greatest sins of all, based on a confusion between the Creator and the creature (Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. II-II q. 94 a. 3.), which can only be surpassed by the heresy of those who have already received the true Faith through the proclamation of the Church, in contradistinction to the pagans who, without their own guilt, do not yet know the Gospel.

At St. Peter's tomb, the Catholic religion must always radiate truth and clarity, because this Apostle [Peter], in his followers (together with all the bishops and faithful), answers to the question “whom do you think I am”: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16). And this has not been given to him from a dialogue with like-minded people or with himself, but, rather, through the Revelation of the Father by the Son. The Fides Petri [the Faith of Peter] is the foundation of the Catholic Church. The Profession of Faith is not to be always reinvented, adapted at will, or reinterpreted as seems necessary. Faith is the power of the Word of God in the heart of the Church and thus not a fossil of obsolete human thought. Revelation is in Christ forever present in all its fullness in the Faith of the Church. We cannot exhaust this source until He returns at the end of time. But we must also not want to improve it through supposedly necessary human emendations. That would be the worst environmental pollution that would make our planet uninhabitable. If the Incarnate Word, Who was with God and is God, no longer were to dwell among us and within us, where would there be still any room for us?