JUDGE THE IMMATURE DR. RATZINGER BY THE MATURE POPE BENEDICT XVI!

You can read a 1962 article by the then Dr. Joseph Ratzinger on Vatican II's discussion on the Liturgy and even the novel thought of bishops conferences tinkering with the liturgy on national levels here:


“The First Session” by Joseph Ratzinger"

Students of the history of Cardinal Ratzinger's later, more mature, seasoned and traditional critique of Vatican II, know that Dr. Ratzinger who wrote the above article was giddy, optimistic and unrealistically so about the new springtime for the Church that Vatican II would usher into the Church.

We see Dr. Ratzinger falling into the trap of the deification of Vatican II and making a pastoral council into a dogmatic one to be blindly accepted as though the infallible Word of God.

For Cardinal Ratzinger, that all changed beginning in 1968 as he saw the "spirit" of Vatican II bring not a new springtime but an endless, devastating fall leading to collapse!

Thus one must read Dr. Ratzinger through the lens of his subsequent teachings especially as Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis would do well to do so also.

But with that said, Pope Benedict wanted the mistakes of the wrong reading of Vatican II corrected. He did not want Vatican II discarded. Thus the revision of the liturgy and the Church had to proceed in continuity with the pre-Vatican II Church, not in rupture.

Thus the Vatican II Mass must be renewed by going to the 1962 MISSAL and revising the most recent Roman Missal in light of what was excellent but discarded. The Ordinariate's Roman Missal is the template for the Latin Rite's organic revision of the modern Missal.

I think we have to take seriously the young Ratzinger's critique of the opening liturgies of Vatican II. Of course, I have said over and over again, the primary concern of Sacrosanctum Concilium was the complexity of the solemn sung and the Pontifical High Masses, not so much the sung Mass or low Mass in most parishes. And the dialogue Mass added to the High Mass would have solved most problems and just a little bit of vernacular. But alas. 

WE ALL KNOW THAT HOLLYWOOD AND UNFORTUNATELY THIS INCLUDES DISNEY IS RUN BY SEXUAL DEVIANTS, WRITERS, PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS AND ACTORS WHO ARE IN ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT WHEN IT COMES TO SEXUALITY AND ACTING IT OUT--WHY HAVE WE GIVEN THESE PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO TWIST OUR CULTURE AND MORALS?

Walt Disney must be turning in his grave! Baby boomers my age and older will fondly remember him each Sunday night on his "Wonderful World of Color". He was such a kindly man and loved showing us his plans for Disneyland and Disney World.

Today, I would recommend pulling the plug on modern Disney and not supporting their theme parks. Disney is how you now spell "betrayal." Sad, indeed!

FROM THE NEW YORK POST:

As a mom of three young kids, I’m careful about what they’re exposed to on television, and I screen the shows they watch to confirm they reflect our family values of respect and courteousness. That’s why my kids are banned from watching the Disney Channel.

The Disney Channel and its spin-off, Disney XD, are no longer “safe spaces” for kids. The kid characters on Disney’s shows are often mouthy and disrespectful to parents and authority figures (who are usually scripted as muddle-headed and embarrassingly square). Even many of the strange animated characters make crass and nasty comments.

Shockingly, both my conservative and liberal parent friends tend to be angered by Disney’s programming. And in the Trump era, moms treasure these rare moments of bipartisan disgust.
Of course, some defend Disney, saying the company is only reflecting our culture and doing what all corporations do by responding to consumer demand. Yet maybe the company should reconsider caving in to the worst impulses of an immature demographic — Disney XD is designed for kids aged 6 to 14.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

After all, Disney has another consumer to consider — the wearied parent battling modern culture to instill principles of kindness, politeness and respect of elders. This Sisyphean task is made more difficult when kids get a regular dose of vulgar speech, crude jokes and insolent behavior on a channel designed for kids.

If that isn’t enough, Disney has now decided to throw some sex and gender issues into the mix.
Small-screen shows like “Andi Mack” featured a tween character coming to terms with his own sexuality.

Disney is pushing boundaries even further by attempting to address the transgender issue.
On a recent episode of the Disney XD show “Star vs. the Forces of Evil,” a young boy dresses up as Princess Marco Turdina — get it? Turd-ina — in order to rescue a group of girls from the evil headmistress at St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses. Sounds tame, right? Boy rescues girls, how traditional.

But when the boy is revealed to be — gasp! — a boy by the headmistress who reveals he has chest hair under his princess costume, the young girls rally around him and launch into the sort of social-justice lecture one might see playing out on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

The scene begins with the headmistress shouting, “Turdina isn’t a princess. She’s a boy!” To which the girls, responding to such a disgusting display of gender bigotry, offer a chorus of defense for Turdina, shouting down the headmistress with comments like:

“Why does it matter if he’s a boy? Nothing he said was wrong!” “He can be a princess if he wants to!” “Turdina is a state of mind!”

No doubt, Disney writers understood this scene would make parents uncomfortable, but what they didn’t understand is the nature of the discomfort.

Sure, some will be unhappy with the transgender-embracing message, but most will be more concerned that kids are being told it’s OK to shout down an adult.

Is that how we want children acting — shouting down authority figures? Oh, wait, they’re already doing that. Again, just look at our college campuses.

We hear a lot from the left about how corporations have a duty to make the world a better place for all mankind.

In response to activist pressure, most corporations give lavishly to environmental causes.

Corporations are told they must diversify their workforce. As such, most major corporations, both old and new, have initiated a variety of badly managed “Corporate Diversity Programs” that have done nothing more than increase tension in the workforce.

Corporations do these things because the public demands it — and to avoid lawsuits.
When it comes to how parents feel and how most parents want to raise kids, Disney seems to think it has zero responsibility.

That’s not going to change until parents start pushing back — or, you know, start pushing the television’s “off” button when Disney comes on.

Julie Gunlock is a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.

WHEN IT COMES TO FAITH AND MORALS, IS POPE FRANCIS TURNING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH INTO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH BY STEALTH?

As a priest, I am confused about the fact that Pope Francis has made a letter to Buenos Aires an act of his magisterium as it concerns the correct interpretation of Amoris Laetitia.

It is the #6 in this letter that is mystifying:

5) When the concrete circumstances of a couple make it feasible, especially when both are Christians with a journey of faith, it is possible to propose that they make the effort of living in continence. Amoris Laetitia does not ignore the difficulties of this option (cf. note 329) and leaves open the possibility of receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation when one fails in this intention (cf. note 364, according to the teaching of Saint John Paul II to Cardinal W. Baum, of 22/03/1996).

6) In other, more complex circumstances, and when it is not possible to obtain a declaration of nullity, the aforementioned option may not, in fact, be feasible (living as brother and sister). Nonetheless, it is equally possible to undertake a journey of discernment. If one arrives at the recognition that, in a particular case, there are limitations that diminish responsibility and culpability (cf. 301-302), particularly when a person judges that he would fall into a subsequent fault by damaging the children of the new union, Amoris Laetitia opens up the possibility of access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist (cf. notes 336 and 351). These in turn dispose the person to continue maturing and growing with the aid of grace.

What befuddles and confuses me as a priest is that it seems to me, then, that the priest in arriving at a decision with a couple that in their particular case (situational ethics to be sure) there are limitations that diminish responsibility and culpability in living out an adulterous relationship, then the priest is actually giving permission to the couple to receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. Or am I misinterpreting this? 

If the priest has discerned through situational ethics that this adulterous couple may return to the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, then, why in the name of God and all that is holy, can't the priest also validate their relationship with a public blessing of some kind or even a convalidation of the marriage? Isn't that the next logical step in Pope Francis logic here?

And let's get into fornication by heterosexual and homosexual couples. If  a priest accompanies these couples and discerns with them through situational ethics that it is proper for them to remain in their sexual relationships for a variety of situational ethics reasons, why not offer a blessing to these couples and publicly at Mass to validate their receiving the Sacraments of  Penance and Holy Communion.

I firmly believe this is where we are being led, Catholicism Lite, a la the Episcopal Church. And didn't Cardinal Pell say this in 2014 at the first synod on the Family? And it seems to me too, that Cardinal Pell's remarks in the video below indicate a seething betrayal by this Magisterium of the Cardinals who don't want the Church, the Catholic Church, to become a part of liberal Protestantism and thus in schism with the truth.

Yes His Eminence did! Here's proof:

SAME PRAYER SERVICE SEVEN YEARS LATER OR IS IT?

Majesty and beauty, a taste of heaven, verses just plain, blah, bland and mundane, very secular. However the Sistine Choir is MUCH better today than then!

Which style do you prefer and why?

THE ROMAN PRAYER SERVICE SEVEN YEARS AGO AND YESTERDAY:

POPE FRANCIS IS SIMPLY WRONG TO PARAPHRASE THE PATER NOSTER AND PRAYTELL, YES, PRAYTELL! BACKS ME UP

I have been wracking my brains trying to remember what our Scripture theologians taught us in the seminary about the Lord's Prayer and the "Lead us not into temptation" part of it. As I recall, temptation can also be rendered "test" and yes, God tests our faith to make it stronger or to see how we will use our free will.

Didn't God do that to Adam and Eve by the way????????????

But here is the Praytell article which I hope Pope Francis reads. I think Cardinal Mueller is right about Pope Francis' lack of theological precision and need for theologians to assist His Holiness:

German Bible Scholar Defends “And lead us not into temptation”

December 8, 2017 

 

Professor Dr. Thomas Söding of the University of Bochum holds that line in the Lord’s Prayer translated as “And lead us not into temptation” should not be changed.

In an interview with DomRadio of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Söding said that this is the correct translation of the Greek text of the New Testament – and “if one wishes to change something here, one should fundamentally change something in the entire Jesus tradition of the New Testament.”
He says that the change recently approved by the French Catholic bishops, “let us not fall into temptation,” is not a translation but a paraphrase. The previous French translation, “subjugate us not to temptation,” gave “a brutal image of God,” but the most recent change is “too much of a good thing.”

Referring to the prayer of Jesus, “not my will, but yours be done,” Söding understands the meaning of the difficult line in the Lord’s Prayer to be this:

When one prayers “Lead us not into temptation,” … this is what is expressed: If you were to lead me into temptation, I would not endure. But thank you that you do not do this, and I express this to you. …

He said further,

I confess that I myself am weak. But I entrust myself to God, that he preserve me from temptation. Thus this petition is not an expression of anxiety, but rather of trust.

Söding noted also that in Germany the traditional wording is used also by Protestant and Orthodox churches, which is of ecumenical significance.

I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION! NO NOT ME! SAINT BERNADETTE, NO I MEAN, OUR BLESSED MOTHER, WHO TOLD SAINT BERNADETTE, HISTORICAL ACCOUNT BELOW!

Great non fiction movie:

OKAY SCRIPTURE SCHOLARS, DO WE JUST HAVE A BAD TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF SCRIPTURE FROM WHICH WE HAVE DEVELOPED THE PATER NOSTER OR IS POPE FRANCIS WRONG IN WANTING TO CHANGE IT???????

I presume that Pope Francis is technically correct, but English speaking Christians, for the most part, Catholic, Protestant and I presume Orthodox know the same Lord's Prayer. Oddly enough the only Prayer in the English Mass that uses Old English, is the Lord's Prayer because of the familiarity that all Christians have with it.

And Latin scholars, has  Et ne nos inducas in tentationem been erroneously translated into English which all Catholics have prayed for centuries in the vernacular and with the Holy Rosary??????


So is Pope Francis being too arrogant (not humble) too academic, too scrupulous and too unecumenical? I ask; you answer!

Pope Francis wants to change line of 'Our Father'

Fox News 15 hours ago

Pope Francis has suggested he wants to make a change to The Lord's Prayer, widely known among the faithful as the “Our Father.” Specifically, the Catholic leader said in an interview Wednesday he would prefer to adjust the phrase “lead us not into temptation,” saying that it too strongly suggested that God leads people to sin. “That is not a good translation,” the pope said, according to Reuters. The phrase “do not let us fall into temptation,” which the Catholic Church in France has previously decided to use, would be a more appropriate alternative, Francis said. He added that the phrase used by the French, or similar wording, should then be implemented around the globe. The prayer originated ...

Read more 

The Latin version

Pater Noster
qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos
dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.

 

WHO KNEW JIMMY KIMMEL WAS A GOOD CATHOLIC? GOD BLESS HIM!

But if you support same sex marriage, does that make you a bad Catholic?

Jimmy Kimmel Defends His Catholic Faith Against Attack from Roy Moore

by ChurchPOP Editor - December 7, 2017

This isn’t something you expect to hear on late night TV.

Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s late night show, recently got into a Twitter spat with Roy Moore. Moore is running for the US Senate in Alabama and has been accused by numerous women of sexual assault when they were minors.

After Kimmel sent one of his people to disrupt a Moore rally at a church, Moore tweeted at Kimmel: “If you want to mock our Christian values, come down here to Alabama and do it man to man.” Kimmel responded on his show saying that he’d be happy to come down to Alabama to discuss “Christian values.”

Here’s what Kimmel said next:

“It doesn’t fit your stereotype, but I happen to be a Christian too. I made my first holy communion, I was confirmed, I pray, I support my church, one of my closest friends is a priest, I baptize my children. Christian is actually my middle name. I know that’s shocking, but it’s true. So if you’re open to, when we sit down, I will share with you what I learned at my church. At my church, forcing yourself on underaged girls is a no-no. Some even consider it to be a sin.”

In another recent episode of his show, he defended good Catholic priests against being lumped together with priests who have committed child abuse.

Kimmel was raised Catholic, was an altar server, and says he is a practicing Catholic. However, he publicly supports things contrary to Catholic teaching, such as same-sex marriage.

WRINGING MY HANDS, IF ONLY THIS FORM OF THE MASS, MOSTLY IN LATIN, ORDINARY FORM, FACING THE PEOPLE, HAD BEEN MANDATED TO BE THE SUNG MASS OF THE LATIN RITE, THERE MORE THAN LIKELY WOULD BE MORE LITURGICAL PEACE TODAY AND FEWER INACTIVE CATHOLICS, BUT ALAS!

Gregorian Chant for the propers, no hymns, Latin but thoroughly a post-Vatican II Ordinary Form Mass. Why in the name of God and all that is holy didn't this become the normal Sunday Sung High Mass in parishes throughout the world--completely in continuity with what was done with high Masses in most parishes everywhere prior to the Council?

This was celebrated this morning for the Memorial of St. Ambrose by Pope Francis in honor of Cardinal Sodano's 90th birthday:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PASS THE CRECHE--OR IS THIS THE GRINCH WHO STOLE THE CRECHE?

This nativity scene makes a statement about gun violence

This year's manger scene outside Saint Susanna Parish in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.

(CNN)This year, the nativity scene on the front lawn of the Saint Susanna Parish looks a little different.

 

Yes, inside the traditional wooden structure visitors can still see the biblical characters of Mary and Joseph staring lovingly at their baby Jesus. But tacked on the walls above them are 16 blue planks, each one a sobering remembrance.

 

SAN BERNARDINO 14. VIRGINIA TECH 32. LAS VEGAS CONCERT 58. AURORA THEATER 12.

This year parishioners at this church in Dedham, a suburb of Boston, decided to blend the annual crèche with the ongoing national conversation about gun violence. Each plank states the location and number of people killed in one of 16 mass shootings in the US.

 

  The idea to bring gun violence into the Christmas display came from the parish's Pax Christi group, a Catholic peace organization. The church's pastor, Steve Josoma, picked which shootings to commemorate.

 

The point is to show, during a traditional season of peace, that mass shootings are happening all over the country, in all kinds of places, says Pax Christi coordinator Patricia Ferrone. 

 

"All of the positive associated with Jesus that we all aspire to, yet we have a world that's an awful mess," Ferrone told CNN. The idea "is really just trying to make connections to show the contrast, in a certain sense, with the way of Jesus and the way of violence." 

 

In the last 10 years the United States has witnessed 18 mass shootings. In 2017 they averaged at one per month through early November, feeding a national debate over gun control and related issues.

Ferrone said St. Susanna didn't worry about a backlash because it "felt like a clear thing to do."

The Pax Christi group always addresses issues of peace, justice and violence at Christmas time, she said. Last year, they handed out ornaments discouraging parishioners from buying toys of violence for their children. 

 

"I think that we have to become more comfortable talking about these (issues) more," Ferrone said. 

 

"These are serious issues and to gloss over them is to forget they're important."

But they also don't want to put a damper on the season or criminalize anyone. Along with the display comes prayer for the families affected by these shootings, their victims and even the perpetrators of such violence.

 

On the outside of the display is a banner that reads: "If only you knew the things that make for peace." It's a quote from the gospel of Luke that dovetails with the parish's push for open conversations about Christian values.

 

"It really is rooted in our faith, in our belief that Jesus came with a particular message," Ferrone said. "We're trying to figure that out and act accordingly, as best as we can."

WELL, THE EASTERN ORTHODOX, ACCORDING TO NEWS SOURCES IS DECLINING AND FALLING AND DUE TO AN EMBRACE OF ORHTODOXY!

Given our discussions on the secularism of our day killing Christianity, now the Orthodox are falling apart if you believe this article. Fake news?

Is Orthodoxism Dying?

An Increasingly Unorthodox World

A season of religious holidays around the world moves into higher gear on Wednesday with the observance of one of the most important saints in the Orthodox Church, a person whose gift-giving legacy is partially tied to the birth of the Santa Claus legend in the U.S. and Father Christmas in the U.K.

But with the arrival of St. Nicholas Day – observed on Dec. 6 in Western Christian nations but on different December days elsewhere – also come questions about the future place Orthodoxy will occupy in the larger Christian world, say analysts.

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Orthodox Christians exist in greater numbers today than in the past, yet represent a diminished share of Christians worldwide. Confined primarily to an aging Europe and strongly tethered to tradition, Orthodox Christianity may need to change its ways to remain relevant, say some practitioners.

"People are sending out a signal that they don't identify with structures of the past anymore and look for new forms of spirituality," says the Rev. Cosmin Antonescu from the Saint Andrew Romanian Orthodox Church in Potomac, Maryland.

Around 260 million people in the world today identify themselves as Christian Orthodox, double the number registered a century ago, according to a report from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank. Russia alone has more than 100 million followers, while more than 95 percent of people in predominantly Orthodox countries such as Moldova, Georgia, Romania and Greece report keeping icons at home.

Yet, as popular as Orthodoxy is in Eastern Europe, this branch or Christianity seems to be losing ground in the overall Christian population. Today, Orthodox Christians represent only 4 percent of the world’s population. Additionally, Orthodox followers account for 12 percent of Christians worldwide, down 8 percentage points from the levels in 1910, according to the Pew report.

The reasons for this decline are many, and experts say they have to do with history and a more rigid administrative structure of the overall Orthodox community.

After the East-West Schism of 1054 between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, Orthodoxism was left isolated in a declining Byzantine Empire. As countries broke away from the empire, Orthodoxism developed in a more decentralized way. “All nations identifying themselves as Orthodox have their own independent ruling,” Antonescu says.

While the Orthodox and the Catholic churches share many rituals and religious beliefs, experts say Orthodoxism seems to have done a better job at keeping its original traditions. When Catholics tried adapting the church to respond to new social needs, the Orthodox Christians focused on preserving their customs.

“We were the most constant church in Christianity, but failing to respond to people’s ever-changing needs made us lose ground in society,” Antonescu says.

Today, Orthodoxism remains concentrated in Europe, where 77 percent of Orthodox Christians still live, while Roman Catholicism expanded around the world.

“In the beginning we were the Byzantine Empire," Antonescu says. "Catholicism, the Western culture expanded in the world and brought Christianity to many places, while, after the rise of Islam, the Byzantine Empire focused on mainly defending against Islamic attacks until the fall of Constantinople. We weren’t given the same space as the Catholics were.”

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Catholics have also arguably benefited from a stronger public presence by being represented by a singular leader, the pope, who has often been a well-known contemporary figure.

 

“Pope John Paul I became a significant global figure in his relatively short time; John Paul II was clearly a very visible figure globally, as well as Pope Francis is today,” says the Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, a Russian Orthodox Church in Sea Cliff, New York. “This all stems from the specifics of the Catholic Church with a figure in the bishop of Rome. This focus is very real and has been there all along but in the age of media popularity it has become very effective.”

According to the Pew report, a decline in Orthodoxism might also stem from declining demographic trends, with a lower fertility rate in Europe, where populations are growing older. 

“Europe’s population has long been shrinking as a share of the world’s total population, and, in coming decades, it is projected to decline in absolute numbers as well,” the report shows.

In order to preserve not only its traditions but also its existence, experts say the Orthodox Church will need to look beyond Europe. That will be a challenging task, since the Orthodox Church is competing with more active religions that seem to be able to expand faster.

“Christianity is growing primarily in Africa and Asia and the Orthodox are not strong enough in those parts of the world to keep up with the demographic challenge of growth,” Kishkovsky says. “There is also a huge growth of Christians in China for instance. But the Chinese social and political situation is such that the primary growth – millions of adherents to Christianity – comes to the Protestants because their missions can be very informal and they move quickly among parts of the populations.”

Whether Orthodox traditions will stand the test of time is unknown. Priests say it's not uncommon for religions to transform and mold into something new, a development that shouldn't worry Orthodox followers.

"Theology evolves as well as the process of knowing God," Antonescu says. "Some spiritualities never die but turn into something else that respond to the same human needs but maybe in a different way."

AM I JUST A PAPAL NERD OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE MUNDANE PAPACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?

Cardinal Mueller gave an interview some weeks back but the entirety of what he said I only recently saw. And so much of what His Eminence says, I agree! Am I that out of touch with the modern papacy and modern Catholic Church?

Here are some of His Eminence soundbites:

(Cardinal Mueller) added that he did not like Pope Francis' method of government, including his attitude towards the Curia.

 The German cardinal also criticized Pope Francis' general style of governing, claiming there should be a greater emphasis on teaching and less on highly publicized breaks from tradition, including rejection of the traditional red papal shoes or living in the papal residence.

 "It would be better to hear the Pope's message of faith instead of making the papacy popular with secondary attention-grabbing elements — with black shoes, Santa Marta ... ."

In December 2016, he clarified that Pope Francis' document, Amoris Laetitia, must be understood in the context of the continuous teaching of the Church, emphasizing that it "should not be interpreted as if the teachings of earlier popes and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the subject were no longer binding."

He also added that "contrition, confession and reparation are the three necessary elements for absolution" before a person can lawfully receive Holy Communion.

Last year, he criticized the widespread celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant revolt, saying there is "no reason" for Catholics to celebrate the biggest rupture of Western Christianity.

He has also since hinted that Francis' pontificate "lacks theological rigor."

In the 1970's liberal seminary, I was schooled in the worship of a dead Hero, Jesus Christ, from His birth in a humble stable to His public ministry and care for the poor, sick and marginalized. And while these remain the ministry of our Risen Lord and through the Church, He reigns in glory from the splendor of heaven giving the poor, marginalized, sick and destitute hope for something better than the poverty of an animal stable or the wood of the Cross! Suffering is not what heaven is about, the splendor of heaven gives hope to our suffering.

Thus the regal papacy, the splendor of the Vatican and the like speak of heaven and of the monarchy of the benevolent Monarch, Christ the King.

I saw this in Pope Benedict's regal papacy, not so much in John Paul II, but certainly in Blessed Pope Paul VI, Saint Pope John XXIII and Venerable Pope Pius XII, popes since I was born. 

It isn't wrong to emphasize heaven as long as the Church cares for the poorest of the poor, the lost soul and those on the wide road to damnation. Usually the poor in material goods are not the most poor as it concerns their salvation.

Give me Jesus the Risen Lord's Regal Papacy, the Risen Lord who reigns now, NOT the mundane papacy of the dead Hero, the Jesus of Nazareth and the desire to return to the past history of that time. Let's live in the glorious history of the Resurrection and our Glorified Risen Lord.

CAN THOSE WHO ARE KNOWN AS RIGHT WINGERS, BE THE ONES TO HELP THE CHURCH IN HER QUEST TO CONSTANTLY BE REFORMING?

If what Michael Vortex says in the video below is true, that most Catholics, clergy and laity, no longer believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist, then the Church, meaning the clergy and laity are in need of reform.

But is this true, that most clergy and laity don't believe in "transubstantiation" as is classically taught by the Magisterium and is a dogma of the Catholic Church?

I don't know! Certainly in the last 50 years we have seen a decline in Catholic faith and morals even by Catholics who attend Mass regularly. But more damning, is the fact that today in some places like Europe and the northeast in the USA, only 12% of Catholics bother to attend Mass which means 88% of Catholics no longer take the Mass seriously enough to attend. That, I would suspect, means they don't believe in the Real Presence of Christ at Mass and that they have become atheists or agnostics.

So the alarm that Michael Voris rings, rings true on that level.

But what about Catholics who believe in transubstantiation, but have not experienced the classical model of reverence due our Lord and His real presence in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? The youth Mass in the post below this one would be a case in point. Reverence as understood by the Church up until Vatican II has been dismantled for more and more practicing Catholics turning our liturgies into the celebration of another kind of Christian denomination, neo-Protestant and certainly not Catholic from how reverence is shown and experienced in the Mass, especially the 1962 Roman Missal form of the Mass.

I often wonder what Rip Van Winkle would have thought if were a Catholic and fell asleep in the 1950's and woke up today and attended a typical parish Catholic Mass. How would he describe it? In fact, we could find that out from teenage and young adult Catholics who have only attended the SSPX Masses here and in Europe and who have never attended a typical parish Ordinary Form Mass. I would love to hear their impressions as it would be very Rip Van Winkle like, no?

So, for those who do believe in transubstantiation, is it the type of reverence or lack thereof that has formed them and is this the problem?

In terms of those in mortal sin, especially institutionalized mortal sin, for the Church to suggest that they can receive Holy Communion while persisting in mortal sin is quite disturbing. Of course, even prior to Vatican II individual Catholics in mortal sin may have gone to Communion. But even with nearly 95% of Catholics attending Mass prior to Vatican II, it would have been a rather minuscule number compared with the much larger number today in a much smaller population of Catholics attending Mass.

If the Church is institutionally allowing some, not all, Catholics to receive Holy Communion in a public state of mortal sin, institutionalized mortal sin, then wouldn't one have to say the Church, meaning the clergy and laity, are in need of continuing reform?

And finally, the Church does have a strong social justice streak that was reinforced by papal teachings in the 1800's. However, back then and up until the 1960's there was certainly a hierarchy of what it means to be Church-based upon sacramental theology and reverence. Without a strong sacramental theology and reverence and the understanding that the Mass includes the Church Militant, Triumphant and Suffering, social work in the Church just makes us another Non Governmental Organization (NGO) like the Salvation Army, Unitarians and the like. Atheists can assist in social justice just as well as Catholics for the desire to love and care for each other is in our genes as a result of having been created in the image and likeness of God. Catholicism, on the other hand, and our unique understanding of salvation history is a gift given, learned and lived in this life as we seek to know, love and serve Jesus Christ here and now in order to be happy with Him forever in heaven.  

JUST HOW COMMOM ARE LITURGICAL ABUSES?

The liturgical abuse in the above videos is dramatic but how frequently is this kind of stuff experienced in most dioceses and rank and file parishes? I don't think too much.

The main problem with the parishes in the videos above is the "cult of the priest's personality" that allows him or others to be the star of the show and receive the applause of his people. They love him because he's like that. God  bless the pastor that follows him who does things by the book.

Yes, this Mass is a far cry from the 1962 Roman Missal. How and why did we get there?

1. There was a major shift in Catholic spirituality as a result of the spirit of Vatican II that led to the superficiality we see above and is quite common in many Catholics today. Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.

2. There is a shift in ecclesiology where the personality of the actors of the Mass is so important. Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.

3. Doing the red and reading the black are ridiculed and marginalized as too rigid and legalistic, if not scrupulous. Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.

4. Priests are not held accountable when there is actual litrugical abuse such as evidenced in the video.  Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.

5. Even in a Revised Mass celebrated as it is meant to be, the options and styles are so widespread and chaotic that this creates a shift in Catholic identity and waters it down.  Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.

6. The erroneous view that the Latin Rite should not be tied to European Catholicism which organically developed over the course of centuries is a major culprit in the decline and fall of the Latin Rite Catholicism almost everywhere in the world leading to the diminishment of the Latin Rite's universal nature.  Thus someone like FrMJK can say that any type of chant and or hymns can be used in the Latin Rite Mass. But he forgets that Eastern Rite Chant, which is appropriate for the Eastern Rite is not appropriate for the Latin Rite and if an Eastern Rite Parish decided to start using Gregorian Chant and Polyphony, that Eastern Rite parish would lose its Eastern Rite identity through such a liturgical abuse for them.  Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal and the ones that followed after Vatican II.



BOTTOM LINE: Reverence is quite different in the 1962 Roman Missal than the Missal that followed after Vatican II.

PRAYTELL'S GIDDINESS OVER THE POPE HANDING OVER TO CONGERENCES OF BISHOPS THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE MASS TURNS NASTY, AS USUAL

You would think Praytell would be overjoyed that the bishops have heeded Pope Francis order on who translates liturgical texts but instead there is hysteria and crocodile tears, but this is good, press title for complete meltdown:

The Bishops’ Statement on Translation

December 4, 2017 

By Chris McDonnell

Our Bishops have spoken. Following their November meeting in Leeds, the Bishops of England and Wales have issued a statement of no-change; the current translation of the Roman Missal will remain in use in spite of the recent statement of Francis restoring the responsibility for liturgical translation to local churches.

“My Oh My Oh My’, to quote a line from a Leonard Cohen lyric.

After their meeting, the Bishops are quoted as saying that they were “grateful” for the guidance they had received from the Congregation for Divine Worship advising that the ‘Motu Proprio’ “concerns future liturgical translations and cannot be applied retroactively”. Grateful? They should have expressed their dismay and disappointment that the 1998 text could be so easily dismissed. Caught between a rock and a hard place they have taken the ostrich option.

Just as they rolled over when the current text was foisted on a voiceless people in 2011, so they have done again.

HOW DOES THE BIRTH CONTROL/ABORTION MENTALITY OF DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS PLAY INTO THE SUNAMI OF REPORTS (ACTUALLY JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBURG) OF SEXUAL HARRASSMENT AND RAPE IN THE MEDIA AND IN GOVERNMENT AND ELSEWHERE??

Why would Matt Lauer, the senators and representatives and media moguls expect women to put out for them?

Of course it has always happened, but I think there has been a sea change since the Hugh Hefner inspired sexual revolution of the 1950's.  Yes, wasn't the Playboy mentality touted by those in the media as a release from Victorian and Catholic and Christian (and Muslim) outdated sexual repression? Wasn't free love the mantra of the hippie movement in the 1960's. Have television shows and the movies glorified one night stands, casual sex and the like.

I cannot tell you how many women have told me that if they go on a date with a man, the man expects sex on that first date. Don't teenagers hook up casually and boys expect all kinds of sexual favors from girls apart from sexual intercourse?  Is this seen as perverse and a form of abuse?

And didn't Pope Paul VI tell us that this kind of thing would happen, that men would lose respect for women when the power of pro-creation was removed from the sex act, in marriage and outside of marriage?

Perhaps the most under reported news is how husbands sexually abuse their wives now that they don't have to worry about sex leading to pregnancy. Sex detached from pro-creation become a monster.

And haven't women lost respect for men too and bought into the culture of being as sexually provocative as can be around men? Isn't there a crass sexual component to the fatten lips that women seek with Botox injections?

Very telling  was an interview with Meredith Viera on her own talk show after she left the Today Show. Matt Lauer and another female co-host of the Today Show spoke about a bag of sex toys Matt had and they were so giddy and making light of it on the show.  The audience roared with laughter especially when Matt said that all of them had gotten a bag of sex toys as gifts.

Can adult women have it both ways, be seductive around men and then complain when men expect what they are flaunting? Shouldn't there be some virtus type training to create an safe environment for women so that men don't take advantage of them and ways to report predatory behavior by both men and women as it concerns a desire for sex from those they work with?

Yes, Matt Lauer and others like him are the problem but only the symptom. When will the real cancer be rooted out? The contraceptive and abortion mentality of the Democrats as well as the Playboy mentality so touted by media moguls and others seems to be the cancer. Will anyone in the major medias acknowledge it?

Think of Victoria Secrets advertisement and television specials. Does this promote respect for women or promote women as sex object, sex toys for men? Doesn't it encourage a Matt Lauer type of mentality toward women and the expectation that women fulfill men's sexual fantasies on demand?

Here is a good article supporting what so many believe about the loss of respect for women which was written only 25 years after Humanae Vitae released in 1968:

POPE PAUL VI AS PROPHET:
HAVE HUMANAE VITAE'S BOLD PREDICTIONS COME TRUE?

Janet Smith
University of Dallas
Humanae Vitae 25 years ago "prophesied" that marriages and society would suffer if the use of contraception became widespread. Now the vast majority of spouses, as well as those who are unmarried, use some form of contraception.

To be sure, the encyclical was not written to be a prophetic document. Rather, it was written to be a clarifying document, intending to explain what the Church teaches about contraception. The encyclical does present this teaching clearly, but it has been little heeded during the last 25 years. Statistics show that few Catholics live by these teachings, and it seems safe to suppose that few Catholics have read Humanae Vitae. 

Christians understand marriage as an elevated calling, whereby God enlists spouses in the all-important enterprise of bringing forth new human life. The Church teaches that to use contraception is to reject God and his life-giving blessings. The Church teaches not merely that contraception is wrong, but that because contraception is wrong, it will have bad consequences.


Four Prophecies
Pope Paul VI made four rather general "prophecies" about what would happen if the Church's teaching on contraception were ignored.

Infidelity and moral decline
The Pope first noted that the widespread use of contraception would "lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." That there has been a widespread decline in morality, especially sexual morality, in the last 25 years, is very difficult to deny. The increase in the number of divorces, abortion, our-of-wedlock pregnancies, and venereal diseases should convince any skeptic that sexual morality is not the strong suit of our age.

There is no question that contraception is behind much of this trouble. Contraception has made sexual activity a much more popular option that it was when the fear of pregnancy deterred a great number of young men and women from engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. The availability of contraception has led them to believe that they can engage in premarital sexual activity "responsibly." But teenagers are about as responsible in their use of contraception as they are in all other phases of their lives--such as making their beds, cleaning their rooms and getting their homework done on time.


Lost Respect for Women
 Paul VI also argued that "the man" will lose respect for "the woman" and "no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium" and will come to "the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." This concern reflects what has come to be known as a "personalist" understanding of morality. The personalist understanding of wrongdoing is based upon respect for the dignity of the human person.

The Pope realized that the Church's teaching on contraception is designed to protect the good of conjugal love. When spouses violate this good, they do not act in accord with their innate dignity and thus they endanger their own happiness. Treating their bodies as mechanical instruments to be manipulated for their own purposes, they risk treating each other as objects of pleasure.


Abuse of Power
Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of contraception would place a "dangerous weapon... in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." The history of the family-planning programs in the Third World is a sobering testimony to this reality. In Third World countries many people undergo sterilization unaware of what they are doing. The forced abortion program in China shows the stark extreme toward which governments will take population programs. Moreover, few people are willing to recognize the growing evidence that many parts of the world face not overpopulation, but underpopulation. It will take years to reverse the "anti-child" mentality now entrenched in many societies.

Unlimited Dominion
Pope Paul's final warning was that contraception would lead man to think that he had unlimited dominion over his own body. Sterilization is now the most widely used form of contraception in the U.S.; individuals are so convinced of their rights to control their own bodies that they do not hesitate to alter even their own physical make-up.

The desire for unlimited dominion over one's own body extends beyond contraception. The production of "test-tube babies" is another indication of the refusal to accept the body's limitations; so too are euthanasia and the use of organs transplanted from those who are "nearly" dead. We seek to adjust the body to our desires and timetables, rather than adjusting ourselves to its needs.

Positive Prophecies
In Humanae Vitae Pope Paul made some positive predictions as well. He acknowledged that spouses might have difficulty in acquiring the self-discipline necessary to practice the methods of family planning that require periodic abstinence. But he taught that self-discipline was possible, especially with the help of sacramental grace. In Section 21, he remarked:

....the discipline which is proper to the purity of married couples, far from harming conjugal love, rather confers on it a higher human value. It demands continual effort yet, thanks to its beneficent influence, husband and wife fully develop their personalities, being enriched with spiritual values. Such discipline bestows upon family life fruits of serenity and peace; and facilitates the solution of other problems; it favors attention for one's partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love, and deepens their sense of responsibility.

While this passage of Humanae Vitae is rarely studied, Pope John Paul II is one commentator who recognizes the depth of its wisdom. It plays the central role in his reflections on Humanae Vitae; he focuses on the importance of "self-mastery" for the proper use of sexuality, and explains the meaning of the human body and the human person as these bear upon sexuality.

John Paul II has spoken of the Church's teaching on contraception as a part of the "permanent patrimony" of the Faith. Twenty-five years of neglecting Humanae Vitae have produced enough unpleasant consequences to help us recognize how foolish and dangerous it is to squander that patrimony.

HAVE YOU HEARD YOUR PRIEST OR DEACON PREACH AGAINST THE IMMORALITY OF FAKE NEWS WHICH SURELY DOES EXIST?

Posts that may look credible at first might contain false information
Photo Courtesy of MCXV

Why aren't reporters and networks not being called out for breaking the 8th Commandment? Surely fake news qualifies as a mortal sin especially for reporters and media newsrooms!

ABC suspends Ross for errors in Flynn report

NEW YORK — ABC News on Saturday suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross for four weeks without pay for his erroneous report on former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, which it called a “serious error.”

Ross, citing an unnamed confidant of Flynn, had reported Friday that during the presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump had directed Flynn to make contact with the Russians. That would have been an explosive development in the Russia investigation, but hours later, Ross clarified the report on the evening news, saying that his source now said that Trump had done so as president-elect, after the election. At that point, he said, Trump had asked Flynn to contact the Russians about issues including working together to fight Islamic State.

ABC was widely criticized for merely clarifying and not correcting the report. It issued a correction later in the evening.

“The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process,” the network said in a statement Saturday.

The news brought reaction from Trump, who tweeted: “Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt. More Networks and “papers” should do the same with their Fake News!”

As for Ross, who is ABC’s chief investigative correspondent, he tweeted: “My job is to hold people accountable and that’s why I agree with being held accountable myself.”

Ross, 69, has won a slew of journalism awards, but he has drawn criticism for previous errors.

WHERE WILL IT ALL LEAD?

From Church Militant:
 
In a Papal Rescript granted on June 5, 2017 ex Audientia Sanctissimi to the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, and just now released by the Vatican in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Holy Father has raised to the level of "authentic Magisterium" both the private letter he wrote on September 5, 2016 to Bp. Sergio Alfredo Fenoy, the Delegate of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina, and the Criterios Basicos para la aplicación del capitulo VIII de Amoris laetitia ("Basic Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia"), issued on the same day by the bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region.

The Supreme Pontiff decrees that the two Documents that precede [this Rescript] are to be made known by publication on the Vatican website and in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, as authentic Magisterium. From the Vatican Palace, on the 5th day of June in the year 2017. (emphasis added)

Pietro Cardinal Parolin
Secretary of State

THE 1960'S SAD STORY OF THE COLLASPE OF RELIGEOUS LIFE OF NUNS!

‘NON SERVIAM’: SALE OF  SHUTTERED CONVENT RECALLS SISTERS’ REVOLT

NEWS: US NEWS

Below is an excerpt of an excellent article that explains the meteoric death of post Vatican II religious life.  The Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns of Los Angeles should not be confused with the order in Philadelphia with sisters in Savannah--the IHM's.

However the nuns' story in this article most orders of nuns in the USA imitated. Here is a very sad excerpt, but you can read the complete fascinating story HERE!

Among the hundreds of IHM casualties was Jeanne Cordova.

Jeanne Cordova, after embracing lesbianism

Weakened by prayerlessness and bewildered by the chaos her calling had become, the young novice eventually succumbed to lesbian seduction.

"Both embittered and sexualized by her experience in the convent," Jones writes, Cordova abandoned Catholicism and became a militant gay activist.

Looking back on the disintegration of her life, the collapse of her faith, Cordova later recalled:

They promised me monastic robes, glorious Latin liturgy, the protection of the three sacred vows, the peace of saints in a quiet cell, the sisterhood of a holy family. But I entered the religious life the year John XXIII was taking it apart: 1966. The fathers of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church were sitting at the Vatican Council destroying in the name of change, my dreams. Delete Latin ritual. Dump the habit. Damn holy obedience. Send nuns and priests out into the real world. If I had wanted the real world, I'd have stayed in it.

"All I had ever wanted to be was a nun," she said.

Jeanne Cordova died on January 10, 2016. 

Her former order will soon follow. Today, five IHM sisters remain, with two arguing — at the Vatican itself — that their archdiocese has no authority over them or their shuttered convent.

BLASPHEMY? SACRILEGE? MORTAL SIN? HOW DOES ONE CATEGORIZE THIS KIND OF PRAYER THAT A CHURCH OF ENGLAND PASTOR SUGGESTS FOR A YOUNG ROYAL?

All I can say is, "Lord have mercy on his minister's soul!" Or perhaps this minister is suggesting "gay" as the word once was understood and how the Flintstone's cartoon song goes: "...and have a gay old time!"

Pray Prince George is gay says leading clergyman

An Anglican minister has urged people to pray that Prince George is gay in order to make the Church of England more inclusive. The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, offered his controversial suggestion in a blog written after the news of Prince Harry’s engagement. In the online letter, he lists strategy ideas for campaigners to change the Church’s opposition to gay marriage. He concluded: ‘They do in England have another unique option, which is to pray in the privacy of their hearts (or in public if they dare) for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman.’ But his comments about the four-year-old, who is third ...

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WISE WORDS FROM FATHER PATRICK PEYTON ON THE FAMILY ROSARY

It is hard to believe today, that these programs  were carried on major networks in the 1950's!

DID OUR LADY OF THE POLES PROTECT POPE FRANCIS?

Near-accident, electricity pole hanging over the pope-mobile

Upon arrival in the park where he celebrated mass, an electricity pole threatened to fall as Francis’ car was passing by. Caught on video

The near-accident occurred when Bergoglio was making his usual ride aboard the open white mobile to greet the hundred thousand faithful gathered at Suhrawardy Udyan Park in Dhaka, where he celebrated mass and ordained 16 new priests.  

The wooden pole, which supported an electric wire, began to sway - perhaps under the thrust of the crowd at the edges of the road. A few moments before the arrival of the Pope-mobile, it tilted and threatened to crash on the street.  

The faithful present started shouting and Francis’ escort rushed to hold back the pole, preventing it from bashing down on the Pope’s car, which is equipped with plexiglass roof.