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Home ...
the One, True, Holy, Catholic Church
“That
understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually
retained, which Holy
Mother Church once declared; and there must never be
a recession from that meaning under the specious name
of a deeper understanding”
(Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1st Vatican Council, S.3, C.2
on Revelation, 1870 ex cathedra)
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What does
it take?
Despite
everything he says and does, people
insist that he is doing something other, something
less — even when he himself states that:
“The Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings
that brought the church into the modern world,
had promised such an opening to people of other
faiths and non-believers, but ...
the church hadn’t made progress since then”
and that in light of his predecessors’ failure to
deliver on the factitious Ecumenism promised...
“I have the humility and
ambition to do so”. 1
That this is an oxymoron apparently escapes Francis — never
an astute student of logic — more than emphasizes Francis’s
limitation to prosaic rhetoric. The tone —
to say nothing of the intention — is absolutely
clear: rapprochement with “the world” and pantheistic
ecumenism that extends no less to the heretic Luther than
to American aboriginal tribes: all worship the same god:
Gitche Manitou no less than Allah — for each is a
merely a cultural iteration of the one same divinity that
all equally serve and worship ... even while Gitche
Manitou deems Catholicism demonic and Allah continues
to reap with the sword, holding Catholics to be idolaters.
Quite a unilateral ecumenical feat … Francis smiles, offers
a few grains of incense and a Pantheon of gods is established
despite the incessant internecine war — to say nothing of
the logical absurdity.
Beyond Plausible Deniability
Who can deny it? Indeed,
how many approve of it — especially in the episcopacy
— and encourage it, both inside Holy Mother Church
and, of course, outside Her. They clamor for the world,
its perversity, its immorality, its freedom from any inhibitions,
prohibitions, and all restrictions — that is to say, anything
normative and proscriptive. In other words, they aspire
to perfect freedom and latitude in all things
— an aspiration that eo ipso precludes God. It is
a matter far beyond recourse to any credible notion of plausible
deniability, for the clarity of disaffection is striking,
manifest, and unmistakable.
The Grayscale, and Moral Saturation
It is a world where nothing is
intrinsically and indefeasibly good and nothing intrinsically
and indefeasibly evil. It is, as Francis describes the moral
terrain, fundamentally grayscale: it does not attain to either
black or white but merely fluctuates in saturation without moral
absolutes. It is essentially a sliding gamma scale whose
slider can move in one direction only: to ever diminishing saturation
that eventually culminates in the absence of distinction and
discernability altogether — at which point we can make no pronouncement
because there is nothing to pronounce. It is the impetus to
moral relativity, and eventually to moral collapse. Nihil
bonum et nihil malum est.2
Logically, of course, this precludes any coherent conception
of God — a Being Who has decided demands, determinate laws,
an invincible propensity for ONLY what is good and an absolute
and unequivocal demand for it. The two … let us say “propensities”
… therefore, are incompatible and irreconcilable. It is called
the Law of the Excluded Middle in Logic. One cannot have something
and at one and the same time the negation of it. One cannot
have God and turpitude, good that is concurrently evil. Of course
the two exist — but as contrarieties, not as moral and metaphysical
equivalents.
Instead of providing a breastwork
against this doctrine that is alien to Catholicism, Francis
urges it further, and the further it is prompted the more inconsistent
it becomes, the less recognizable as something distinct from
a thousand other “iterations” of “Christianity” equally claiming
plausibility upon the most tenuous and most often absurd credentials.
The corrupt papacy of Francis, coupled with — and as a result
of — the horrific consequences of Vatican II has made
the new “Church of Accompaniment in Sin and a God of Surprises”
a simulacrum and nothing more: a poorly contrived counterfeit
at best.
“Make a Mess”
Expunging 2000 Years … in 5
“Make a Mess”, Francis “devilishly”
proclaimed. He has succeeded beyond any pathological fiction
he could have possibly conjured:
In a short five years
he has either contorted, disfigured or dismantled the Catholic
Church purchased with the Blood of Christ and sealed with the
blood of the Martyrs. He has brought the Catholic Church of
over 2000 years to unimaginable turpitude and inconceivable
scandal. It is barely recognizable as Catholic in
any sense that corresponds to an ecclesiastical identity manifest
in the two millenia before the breach that occurred with
the Second Vatican Council. No longer steeped in holiness
(and with a pronounced and growing aversion to it) —
but in perversion and perversity of the most execrable kind,
it is the consummation of homosexual inbreeding among
cardinals, bishops, priests, and very likely even a pope.
Homosexual predators ordained homosexual priests and barred
men who were not homosexual. These predator priests became
homosexual predator bishops, who in turn nominated other bishops,
who then became homosexual criminal cardinals. Every “boy” took
care of and covered, his “boy” until the possession was nearly
complete. It took nearly 60 years of unremitting and totally
dedicated work by the Pink Collar Club — but it brought the
Church to Her knees and perhaps the brink of schism.
POSSESSION of the most
Demonic Kind
Nothing short of a total exorcism
of this filth from the seminaries, parishes, chanceries, and
monasteries will suffice. Collars must be torn off. Bishops
and Cardinals must be laicized and evicted in laymen’s clothing
to the curbs of their luxurious offices and remanded to state
authorities for investigation. “The Church of Accompaniment”
is in too much complicity to entrust it with this absolutely
necessary fumigation.
Face it and own up to it, whether you are a cardinal,
bishop, priest, friar, monk, sister, nun — and especially a
lay person. You trusted to a fault and despite your own deep
and justifiable misgivings that would not go away … looked the
other way instead.
The fault is yours. And it is mine. We did not have the courage
to question and demand answers when our children, our young
men, fell victim to this widespread and indescribably horrible
predation in the holiest of places. We wanted to believe otherwise.
And so we did.
We got Francis because we deserve Francis — an
uncouth, vulgar, vindictive, and mentally incompetent man who
was “nominated” through a conspiratorial tour de force
into the seat of Peter by men (members of the notorious St.
Gallen Group, a.k.a. the self-proclaimed “St.
Gallen Mafia” ) unworthy of their collars and birettas,
men who conspired to make a simpleton a king — and when the
simpleton turned vicious and unpredictable, they too became
too fearful to contradict him. They had too much to lose.
And so do we. Even the little we have left will be taken away.
Please God that we can recover a remnant, a mere thread of the
beautiful holiness that was the Church before the Second Vatican
Council — and the papacy of Francis — the man who may have
already overthrown the Catholic Church of 2000 years in a mere
five.
Despite him and despite us, Holy Mother Church will endure and
prevail. It may take years … perhaps centuries. But Christ Himself
promised us no less.
“Caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem
Mea non praeteribunt.” (St. Matthew 24.35)
_____________________________________
1
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/10/pope_francis_urges_reform_want.html
;
http://www.boston-catholic-journal.com/francis-the-great-divider-in-the-post-modern-catholic-church.htm
2 Nothing is good and nothing is bad.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Francis:
“I Will Not Say a Single Word”
(and THIS is why …)
Why … why
did Francis refuse to reply to the shocking accusations
brought about by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganň with these infamous
words?
This question has mystified countless Catholics, journalists
and reporters concerning the widespread Abuse Scandal of Predatory
Homosexual Priests. There is an answer — an answer
that is at once conspicuously cogent, compelling, and credible.
In fact, it may be the answer to the most salient question
surrounding the worst scandal that has ever plagued the Roman
Catholic Church in the 2000 years of Her history:
“How was this possible?”
Dr. Taylor
Marshall, Philosopher and director of the New Saint Thomas
Institute, has provided us with a uniquely insightful answer
which, when fully explicated, answers not only this vexing question
concerning Francis, but the vicious mechanism by which homosexual
predation within the clergy flourished and continues to be perpetuated.
The Answer in Short: MANIPULATING THE SEAL OF THE CONFESSIONAL
In order to understand this answer, it is imperative that you
understand the following:
-
A priest may NEVER — under
any circumstance — break the “Seal of the Confessional”
even if it costs him his life. If he does break that
seal, he is automatically excommunicated from
the Church (read on) and can no longer exercise
any priestly function or faculty, celebrate any Mass, or
receive Holy Communion. He is outside the Church. THIS
IS THE VITAL POINT TO KEEP IN MIND.
-
Let us assume that a homosexual priest has
sexually violated (raped) a young man.
-
To protect himself from the possibility
of the exposure of his sin and crime, he enters the Confessional.
Upon his confession, HE IMMEDIATELY BINDS THE PRIEST
TO WHOM HE CONFESSES — both by the Seal of the
Confessional and by Canon Law —
TO NEVER REVEAL IT TO ANYONE, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, WHATSOEVER,
no matter how many times he has done it or continues to
do it.
-
THIS IS A VERY FORCEFUL EXPLANATION OF
WHY FRANCIS REMAINS SILENT.
-
What is more, Francis may have had two
possible reasons: not to break the Seal of the Confessional
himself and incurring excommunication latae
sententiae (the punishment is concurrent with
the action) — but also to BIND any priest to
whom he
himself may have confessed his complicity in perpetuating
the same sin, from ever disclosing it.
We believe that this explanation exceeds mere conjecture, but
there is no way that we can ever know it for certain
for the very reasons we have already articulated: such a priest
can say absolutely NOTHING relative to it, either
exculpatory or inculpatory, not even by so much as
the slightest gesture for in doing so, he would be automatically
excommunicating himself.
Demonic
Perspicacity
It is nothing less than a demonically clever
artifice, for it uses a Sacrament, something holy and
inviolable, which in itself (in se) cannot ever be evil
— to enable a person to manipulate the sacrament in order to
continue to commit or perpetuate evil without disclosure or
penalty — and to bind any priest who knows of
his unspeakable sin through Holy Confession. It has been, and
is, instigated by the devil and the demons. It is the work
of darkness.
In a word, Francis could not respond
to the question because, by Canon Law, if any priest
— including the pope — breaks the “Seal of the Confessional”
by word, gesture or deed; if he in any way whatever —
violates the Seal of the Confessional and reveals the sins of
the Penitent to anyone* — even to save his own life —
and even if the Penitent is no longer living —
the priest is automatically excommunicated latae
sententiae (the instant he breaks the Seal) from
the Church.
Of course Francis could never “say a single
word” — not if he were to remain “pope” rather than excommunicating
himself from the Church.
And this, very likely, is also HOW homosexuality
became so pervasive within the priesthood and the episcopacy!
Each was covering for the other by binding the other to silence
through the sacred Seal of the Confessional — even if the Confessor
was not homosexual himself!
This self-perpetuating problem can be understood
in a broader context: homosexual seminarians become homosexual
priests — who become homosexual bishops —
who become homosexual cardinals — who then vote for a pope who
himself may be homosexual or at least sympathetic to homosexuality.
The longer the ordination of homosexuals, the more pervasive
homosexuality will become in the Church until, in an ultimate
effrontery to God, a “synod” or “council” or “pope” declares
to its self-serving purposes that homosexuality is no longer
a sin — despite every word about it in Holy Scripture
and the teaching of the Church for 2000 years.
Consider once again, the following scenario:
a homosexual seminarian has sinful and perverse sexual relations
with another seminarian.
He goes to confession.
Once he reveals his sin to the Confessor,
that priest is bound not to let what he has heard from this
seminarian influence him in any way. It is as though a confession
never occurred as far as the world outside the Confessional
is concerned — and the priest effectively becomes
a sacred amnesiac. The priest cannot act upon what was confessed
to him in any way. Even if the offender routinely has
sex with other men, the Confessor cannot in any way influence
the candidate's soon-to-be vocation as a priest. It is nothing
less than diabolically conceived, implemented,
and perpetuated — it has the “Mark of the Beast”
upon it, from conception to conclusion.
“NOT A WORD CAN BE SAID”
It cannot be sufficiently impressed upon us
that the moment the seminarian kneels in the Confessional (or,
more commonly in the Novus Ordo Church, sits in a lounge
chair and comfortably encounters the priest face-face in what
resembles a clinical session — an environment that lends
itself to “other pertinent” and more frightful possibilities
inside the “Room of Reconciliation” — “NOT
A WORD CAN BE SAID” to anyone outside the Confessional
— ever.
One very troubling question remains: which side of the Confessional
was Bergoglio in? The Confessor’s or the Penitent’s
... or both? He cannot reveal this. And this may well account
for his malicious reference to the Confessional as “a torture
chamber”.
Before the Sacrament of Penance itself is mindlessly
vilified, it is equally vital to understand that the Sacrament
of Penance is inviolably sacred and indefeasibly holy, for
only through this Sacrament is sin absolved, the penitent
cleansed, and upon enacting his penance, exempted from all temporal
punishment, and reconciled to God and the Church. Mortal
Sin is removed and with it — eternal punishment
in a very real place called Hell.
To use this sacred Sacrament, by which sins
are absolved — to sustain, and even implement sin itself
— is a sin so grave, so sacrilegious, so profane, indeed, so
blasphemous, that an even graver category of sin than even Mortal
Sin itself seems necessary. May we suggest “Demonic Sin”? Why?
Because complicity in this category of sin is so heinous, so
blasphemous, that it is a participation in a sin that can only
be predicated of the demons — and the Father Lies himself.
_________________________
* Who may not be genuinely penitent at all, in
which case the absolution granted by Christ through the priest
is invalid and the “penitent” is further guilty of the greater
sin of Sacrilege
1 The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 decreed, “Let
the confessor take absolute care not to betray the sinner through
word or sign, or in any other way whatsoever. In case he needs
expert advice he may seek it without, however, in any way indicating
the person. For we decree that he who presumes to reveal a sin
which has been manifested to him in the tribunal of penance
is not only to be deposed from the priestly office, but also
to be consigned to a closed monastery for perpetual penance.”
See also: Canon 983.1 of the current Code of Canon Law, which
declares that “…It is a crime for a confessor in any way to
betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any
reason” (#2490 CCC).
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Boston Catholic Journal
March 3, 2019
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Vatican “Sex Abuse Summit”:
... a disgraceful travesty;
nothing more
“Pansies clearly are not flowers
— that is only an hypothesis to be proven”
“Cardinal
Cupich’s comments at today’s Vatican press conference show
that he denies any causal connection between homosexuality
or a homosexual subculture and sexual abuse, even though
he doesn’t deny that 80 percent of the abuse is same-sex
... Cupich ... refuses to investigate whether there is
a tacit agreement among homosexual prelates to cover up such
abuse.”
See more at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-cupich-concedes-majority-of-abuse-is-homosexual-but-denies-causal.
It is vital that you understand the following
to grasp the hypocrisy, duplicity, and deceit involved:
-
“Homosexual rape”
is never addressed as such at this “summit”.
Instead, it is routinely spoken of only
in terms of “misconduct” — which
can be virtually any unacceptable
behavior. The infamous Father Paul Shanley
of St. Patrick’s in Stoneham was convicted
for “raping a child” — he was not convicted
for “misconduct”.
-
Men who force women into
sexual acts are not guilty of “misconduct”
— they are committing rape.
-
Every single bishop
— apparently by prearranged agreement
— substituted the word “misconduct”
for “rape”
-
Every single bishop
used a Vatican-minted and sanitized
neologism: “male-on-male
sex” instead of “homosexual sodomy”
or “homosexual sex”
Apparently — very apparently —
they do not want to bring the word “homosexuality” into disrepute
— in perhaps an effort to protect themselves.
Ask yourself the following: Since when is
forcefully (or even consensually) sodomizing another man
merely a case of “misconduct”?
It is a horrific sin and a crime
before God and man. (Romans
1.27)
And yet
Archbishop Scicluna in a paroxysm of absurdity maintains
that:
“I don’t think
in anything that’s happened here anyone has suggested
that people with homosexual tendencies equal people
who are abusing [minors], and that should be
clear.”
Flat-lining
Scicluna is in apparent need
of an electroencephalogram to certify that he is not brain-dead
... or he flat-lined upon uttering that absurdity.
May I suggest an alternative, and even more compelling narrative,
Scicluna?
That IS the whole
conspicuous and utterly indisputable
point! It
IS homosexuals
who are committing these crimes and Church bureaucrats refuse
to acknowledge it — no matter how much evidence is amassed
before them. It is the resolute refusal to believe
the obscene, the scatological reality that actually exists —
and an attempt to build an entirely fictional reality
in place of it; a narrative in which homosexuals are the
“oppressed victims”
who are at least implicitly “discriminated
against” for raping and sodomizing other
men — and yes, children! To contest otherwise
Credibility Score for the
Church as of 23 February 2019:
minus 100. In other
words, NONE! ZERO. ZIP!
This is not a myopic perspective confined to
traditional Catholic media. Consider the following excerpts
from the secular media:
|
“THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S
decades-long practice of enabling and systematically
covering up the rape and molestation of children
by priests is by now sickeningly familiar. Yet the
scale of abuse; the breadth and depth of trauma
inflicted by predators wearing Roman collars; and
the coldbloodedness of senior church figures zealous
in their resolve to protect the church but indifferent
to the suffering of minors, retain their power to
shock the conscience.” —
Washington Post |
|
“IT
IS EVIDENT that the Catholic Church is incapable
on its own of exorcising the scourge of clergy sex
abuse. The scandal raged unchecked for decades and,
even after it was exposed
in
2002 by the Boston Globe
, has been met by the church hierarchy with
denial, temporizing, stone
walling and half-measures.”
—
Washington Post
|
|
“Even
as apologists for the Vatican and the clergy continue
peddling the myth that the Catholic Church’s pedophile
scandals simply reflect society’s problems, the
weight of evidence is overwhelming proof to the
contrary. Thousands of American priests weaponized
faith, as Mr. Shapiro said, taking advantage of
their status and access to children to prey on them.
They left uncountable thousands of victims in their
wake.”
—
Washington Post
|
I don’t believe a word of Francis, the prime
facilitator of this abomination. I don’t believe the bishops’
factitious sincerity, their “perplexity”, their suddenly
epiphanous realization of this detestable state of affairs
that has lacerated the Church for the last 50 years and beyond.
I especially do not believe their sanctimonious “truthfulness”
for a minute — or even as much as their clearly impaired cognitive
faculties.
But I DO believe in their willingness
to enter into complicity to continue to conceal,
to contrive nonsensical verbal schemes to confuse the issue,
to lie, to equivocate, to publicly insult the intelligence of
ordinary men and women, and to try to expunge the absolutely
vile and incontestable issue of homosexual predation in the
Church from “further consideration”
— and to prevent any further intrusion into their dark, deep,
and salacious network.
Of course, this is, as Cupich would insist,
a mere “hypothesis to be proven”, mere conjecture, an opinion
only — despite the testimony of thousands of victims.
These are not cardinals and bishops — they
are not even “men”;
they are spiders and flies — an unparalleled disgrace
in the history of the Church, and personally responsible,
each of them, all of them, for the loss of countless souls who
abandon the Church in disgust.
They deem themselves clever in aligning
Francis's new and burgeoning
“Church of Accompaniment in Sin”
with the perverse and prevailing
Ways of the World.
What — or who — could induce them to
this apocalyptic fraud, this flagrant and unabashed
heresy?
What will they possibly say before
God for every soul lost that they must
answer for? They will be speechless ...
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
The Odor of Sulfur ... not Sanctity
“Vade post Me Satana, scandalum
es Mihi: quia non sapis ea quae Dei
sunt, sed ea quae hominum.”
(Saint Matthew 16.23)
“ Get
thee behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto Me:
because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but
the things that are of men.”
These were
Christ’s words ... to Saint Peter — the first pope —
when, of himself, Peter decided the
way that Jesus should go ... the way that he himself deemed
the best path. Imagine ... for that moment — Peter was Satan!
It is staggering!
And except
for Francis, unimaginable ...
Who has
not Smelled it?
Obedience
to the pope presumes the pope’s obedience to Christ
—
and to the nearly 2000 year old Sacred Deposit of Faith
that Christ entrusted to His Bride the Church. In Holy Scripture,
in Sacred Tradition, and in the Deposit of Faith
we find the fullness of truth and the unerring certainty of
the will of God in all things. Who defects from any of the three
defects from all and who teaches otherwise teaches heresy. He
is separated from the Church. 1
No one is exempt because no one is immune
to grievous sin — sin so grave that excommunication is incurred
latć sententić (automatically: as soon as the sin is
committed). Canon Law 1463 states:
“Certain
particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most severe
ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments
and the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which
absolution consequently cannot be granted, according to canon
law, except by the Pope, the bishop of the place or priests
authorized by them.”
But what if
the pope himself is the excommunicate (latae sententiae)
... or even worse?
Who is not confused?
In the face of the near daily assaults — by the
present papacy itself and an episcopacy in apparent complicity
with him — on 2000 years of the consistent teaching of the Church,
on the very Deposit of Faith, and on the validity of Sacred
Scripture itself, what Catholic has not asked — in the fearfully
deep and most secret recesses of his soul — the question
“Whence?” From whom and from what comes this
relentless scourging of faith — even at the vertex of the Church
itself — this overwhelming defection from all that is
holy to all that is vile?
“There is smoke in the sanctuary”
and instinctively we perceive it, recoil from
it. It is proffered as incense but is pungent to our senses
— as the fume of smoldering sulfur.
We are confused between the Word of God become
Man and the word of man become god.
What a fearful divide rends the Body of Christ
anew! See how the sheep are scattered! Need we tell
you who is the father of confusion and lies ...?
No Longer Inconceivable
...
Imagine
... the pope himself as the principle cause
of confusion — and defection — in the Catholic Church.
It is nothing less than ... diabolically clever.
It is
Francis indeed whom satan has sought to sift
like wheat 2 — and sadly, it would appear,
with much success and to great measure.
Manifest Complicity with Evil
— and the "Father of Lies" himself
In our obligation to Charity (one of the three
Theological Virtues: Faith and Hope being the other two),
we should pray that Francis, together with the cardinals and
bishops complicit with him, should renounce their complicity
with satan, the father of lies and their collaboration with
the manifest evil that they have embraced and propagated — and
through which they would pull down the walls of the Church and
make Christ a liar! Indeed, did not Jesus speak of this current
Brood of Vipers when He said:
“You are of your father the devil,
and the desires of your father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood
not
in the truth; because truth is not in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father thereof.”
(St. John 8.44)
Mass Defection
A frightening
number of
cardinals, bishops, and priests have lost their faith altogether
and no longer believe what Christ Himself and Holy Mother the
Church taught for 2000 years. Formally, this is called apostasy.
They have defected from the Bride of Christ because She
is pure and their desires are evil — She is not of
this world — but they are! Her Body is chaste and
their desires are perverse, corrupt, and defiled. It is precisely
in the paradigm of the
The Third Temptation of Christ
that we find the provenance of this defection (apostasy.
What Jesus Christ spurned (worldly “power and glory”
), they have lusted
for — and in exchange for it have given the required tribute
to the “father of lies” — satan — who openly boasts of
the “power” and “the glory of this world”, that:
“to me they
are delivered, and I give them to whom I will”
(St. Luke 4.5-6).
The Tribute due to the father
of lies
And what is that
tribute? LIES. If the father is a liar, then his
brood can only be liars, too. Christ has already told
us:
“the
desires of your father you will do ... for he is a liar,
and the father thereof.”
In exchange for power and
perversion they have traded lies: lies about Christ’s
teaching, about the authentic teaching of the Catholic
Church, about the Sacred Deposit of Faith, about Catholic Doctrine
and Dogma, about morals, about Heaven and Hell — about Sacred
Scripture itself! They have lusted for power
— perhaps even more than they have shamefully and perversely
lusted for other men — and to acquire this power they have
traded truth for lies!
It is, we
will find, through the Faithful, the Laity, that the Church
will be delivered — just as it was in the days of the early
heresies when miter and crozier, cardinal and bishop, were bent
in submission to apostasy from the Faith — apostasies to which
the laity, having learned the truth in holy simplicity, gave
no heed. They could smell a wolf under the greatest abundance
of wool.
Christ Himself
is the Good Shepherd.
“The
sheep follow Him, because they know His voice.
But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because
they know not the voice of strangers.”
(Saint John 10:4-5)
Hold fast to
the Faith of our Fathers! Cleave to Christ and to what He
has taught us, to what Holy Mother Church taught us
prior to Vatican II — and fear nothing, and no one — no matter
his power or how ruthlessly he demands submission.
“For
there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we
must be saved.”
(Acts 4.12)
Did not Christ
Himself promise:
“I
will not forsake you.”
(Saint John 14.18)?
Nor must we
ever forsake Him through any inducement to sin
— by whomsoever.
________________________
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excommunication_(Catholic_Church
)
2 Saint Luke 22.31
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Further
Reading on the Papacy of Francis:
Martyrology for today:
ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
Thursday March 21st
in the Year of Grace 2019
Season of Lent
This Day, the Twenty-First Day of March
On Mount Cassino, the birthday of the holy abbot
Benedict, who restored and wonderfully extended in the West the
monastic discipline, which was almost destroyed. His life, brilliant
in virtues and miracles, was written by Pope St. Gregory.
At Alexandria, under the emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius,
the commemoration of the holy martyrs who
were attacked and murdered by the Arians and the Gentiles whilst they
were in the church on Good Friday.
The same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.
At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated
bishop by St. Peter. After converting many
Gentiles to the faith, in extreme old age he rested in peace.
At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and
bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who being forced into
exile by the enraged Arians, went to Heaven.
In the territory of Lyons, the abbot St. Lupicinus,
whose life was resplendent with the luster of holiness and miracles.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors,
and holy virgins.
Omnes sancti Mártyres,
oráte pro nobis. ("All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us", from the
Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany of the Saints)
Response: Thanks be to God.
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Roman
Martyrology by Month
Why the
Martyrs Matter
Each day we
bring you a calendar, a list really,
of the holy Martyrs who had suffered
and died for Christ, for His Bride the
Church, and for our holy Catholic Faith;
men and women for whom — and well they
knew — their Profession of Faith would
cost them their lives.
They could have repudiated all three
(Christ, Church, and Catholic Faith)
and kept their lives for a short time
longer (even the lapsi only postponed
their death — and at so great a cost!).1
What would motivate men, women, even
children and entire families to willingly
undergo the most evil and painfully
devised tortures; to suffer death rather
than denial?
Why did they not renounce their Catholic
Faith when the first flame licked at
their feet, after the first eye was
plucked out, or after they were “baptized”
in mockery by boiling water or molten
lead poured over their heads? Why did
they not flee to offer incense to the
pagan gods since such a ritual concession
would be merely perfunctory, having
been done, after all, under duress,
exacted by the compulsion of the state?
What is a little burned incense and
a few words uttered without conviction,
compared to your own life and the lives
of those you love? Surely God knows
that you are merely placating the state
with empty gestures …
Did they love their wives, husbands,
children — their mothers, fathers and
friends less than we do? Did they value
their own lives less? Were they less
sensitive to pain than we are? In a
word, what did they possess that we
do not?
Nothing. They possessed what we ourselves
are given in the Sacrament of Confirmation
— but cleaved to it in far greater measure
than we do: Faith and faithfulness;
fortitude and valor, uncompromising
belief in the invincible reality of
God, of life eternal in Him for the
faithful, of damnation everlasting apart
from Him for the unfaithful; of the
ephemerality of this passing world and
all within it, and lives lived in total
accord with that adamant belief.
We are the Martyrs to come. What made
them so will make us so. What they suffered
we will suffer. What they died for,
we will die for. If only we will! For
most us, life will be a bloodless martyrdom,
a suffering for Christ, for the sake
of Christ, for the sake of the Church
in a thousand ways outside the arena.
The road to Heaven is lined on both
sides with Crosses, and upon the Crosses
people, people who suffered unknown
to the world, but known to God. Catholics
living in partibus infidelium, under
the scourge of Islam. Loveless marriages.
Injustices on all sides. Poverty. Illness.
Old age. Dependency. They are the cruciform!
Those whose lives became Crosses because
they would not flee God, the Church,
the call to, the demand for, holiness
in the most ordinary things of life
made extraordinary through the grace
of God. The Martyrology we celebrate
each day is just a vignette, a small,
immeasurably small, sampling of the
martyrdom that has been the lives of
countless men and women whom Christ
and the Angels know, but whom the world
does not know.
“Exemplum enim
dedi vobis”, Christ said to His
Apostles: “I have given you an example.”
And His Martyrs give one to us — and
that is why the Martyrs matter.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Note: We suggest that you explore
our newly edited and revised
“De SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus — The Torments
and Tortures of the Christian Martyrs”
for an in-depth historical account of
the sufferings of the Martyrs.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAN
MARTYROLOGY
By
J. Cardinal
Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore
THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY is an official
and accredited record, on the pages of which are
set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words,
the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ
in all ages of the Church; of the illustrious Heroes
and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict
has beatified or canonized. In making up this long
roll of honor, the Church has been actuated by that
instinctive wisdom with which the Spirit of God,
who abides in her and teaches her all truth, has
endowed her, and which permeates through and guides
all her actions. She is the Spouse of Christ, without
spot or wrinkle or blemish, wholly glorious and
undefiled, whom He loved, for whom He died, and
to whom He promised the Spirit of Truth, to comfort
her in her dreary pilgrimage through this valley
of tears, and to abide with her forever. She is
one with Him in Spirit and in love, she is subject
to Him in all things; she loves what He loves, she
teaches and practices what He commands.
If the world has
its
“Legions
of Honor”,
why should not also the Church of the Living God,
the pillar and the ground of the truth? If men who
have been stained with blood, and women who have
been tainted with vice, have had their memory consecrated
in prose and in verse, and monuments erected to
their memory, because they exhibited extraordinary
talents, achieved great success, or were, to a greater
or less extent, benefactors of their race in the
temporal order, which passeth away, why should not
the true Heroes and Heroines of Jesus, who, imitating
His example, have overcome themselves, risen superior
to and trampled upon the world, have aspired, in
all their thoughts, words, and actions, to a heavenly
crown, and have moreover labored with disinterested
zeal and self-forgetting love for the good of their
fellow-men, have their memories likewise consecrated
and embalmed in the minds and hearts of the people
of God? If time have its heroes, why should not
eternity; if man, why should not God?
“Thy
friends, O Lord, are exceedingly honored; their
principality is exceedingly exalted.”
Whom
His Father so dearly loved, the world crucified;
whom the world neglects, despises, and crucifies,
God, through His Church, exceedingly honors and
exalts. Their praises are sung forth, with jubilation
of heart, in the Church of God for ages on ages.
The wisdom of the
Church of God in honoring her Saints is equaled
only by the great utility of the practice thus consecrated.
The Saints are not merely heroes; they are models.
Christ lived in them, and Christ yet speaks through
them. They were the living temples of the Holy Ghost,
in whose mortal bodies dwelt all the riches of His
wisdom and grace. They were in life consecrated
human exemplars of divine excellence and perfection.
Their example still appeals to our minds and to
our hearts, more eloquently even than did their
words to the men of their own generation, while
they were in the tabernacle of the flesh. Though
dead, they still speak. Their relics are instinct
with sanctity, and through them they continue to
breathe forth the sweet odor of Christ. The immortality
into which they have entered still lingers in their
bones, and seems to breathe in their mortal remains.
As many an ardent, spirit has been induced to rush
to the cannon's mouth by reading the exploits of
earthly heroes, so many a generous Christian soul
has been fired with heavenly ardor, and been impelled
to rush to the crown of martyrdom, by reading the
lives and heroic achievements of the Saints and
Martyrs of Christ. Example, in its silent appeal,
is more potent in its influence on the human heart
and conduct than are words in their most eloquent
utterances.
The Church knows
and feels all this, in the Spirit of God with whom
she is replenished ; and hence she sets forth, with
holy joy and exultant hope, her bright and ever-increasing
Calendar of Sanctity of just men and women made
perfect and rendered glorious, under her unearthly
and sublime teachings. In reading this roll of consecrated
holiness, our instinctive conclusion is, precisely
that which the great soul of St. Augustine reached
at the very crisis of his life, the moment of his
conversion
“If
other men like me have attained to such sanctity,
why not I? Shall the poor, the afflicted, the despised
of the World, bear away the palm of victory, the
crown of immortality, while I lie buried in my sloth
and dead in my sins, and thus lose the brilliant
and glorious mansion already prepared for me in
heaven? Shall all the gifts, which God has lavished
upon me, be ingloriously spent and foolishly wasted,
in the petty contest for this world's evanescent
honors and riches, while the poor and contemned
lay up treasures in heaven, and secure the prize
of immortal glory? Shall others be the friends of
God, whom He delights to honor, while I alone remain
His enemy, and an alien from His blessed Kingdom?”
It is a consoling
evidence of progress in the spiritual life in this
country to find the Martyrology here published,
for the first time, in English, and thereby made
accessible, in its rich treasures of Sanctity, to
all classes of our population. It will prove highly
edifying and useful, not only to the members of
our numerous religious Communities of both sexes,
but also to the laity generally. Every day has here
its record of Sanctity; and there is scarcely a
Christian, no matter how lowly or how much occupied,
who may not be able to daily peruse, with faith
and with great profit, the brief page of each day's
models of Holiness. These belong to all classes
and callings of life; from the throne to the hovel,
from the Pontiff to the lowest cleric, from the
philosopher to the peasant, from the busy walks
of life to the dreary wastes of the desert.
Let all, then, procure
and read daily the appropriate portions of this
Martyrology. Its daily and pious perusal will console
us in affliction, will animate us in despondency,
will make our souls glow with the love of God in
coldness, and will lift up our minds and hearts
from this dull and ever-changing earth to the bright
and everlasting mansions prepared for us in Heaven!
Imprimatur,
J. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore, Maryland
1916
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Version
THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
“QUO
PRIMUM
”
(and what
“Forever”
really means)
“From
the very first,
upon Our elevation to the chief Apostleship,
We gladly turned our mind and energies
and directed all out thoughts to those
matters which concerned the preservation
of a pure liturgy, and We strove with
God's help, by every means in our power,
to accomplish this purpose. For, besides
other decrees of the sacred Council
of Trent, there were stipulations for
Us to revise and re-edit the sacred
books: the Catechism, the Missal and
the Breviary. With the Catechism published
for the instruction of the faithful,
by God's help, and the Breviary thoroughly
revised for the worthy praise of God,
in order that the Missal and Breviary
may be in perfect harmony, as fitting
and proper —
for it is most
becoming that there be in the Church
only one appropriate manner of reciting
the Psalms and
only one rite for the
celebration of Mass
— We deemed
it necessary to give our immediate attention
to what still remained to be done,
viz, the re-editing of the Missal
as soon as possible.
Hence, We decided to entrust this work
to learned men of our selection. They
very carefully collated all their work
with the ancient codices in Our Vatican
Library and with reliable, preserved
or emended codices from elsewhere. Besides
this, these men consulted the works
of ancient and approved authors concerning
the same sacred rites; and thus
they have restored the Missal itself
to the original form and rite of the
holy Fathers. When this work
has been gone over numerous times and
further emended, after serious study
and reflection, We commanded that the
finished product be printed and published
as soon as possible, so that all might
enjoy the fruits of this labor; and
thus, priests would know which prayers
to use and which rites and ceremonies
they were required to observe from now
on in the celebration of Masses.
Let all everywhere adopt and observe
what has been handed down by the Holy
Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher
of the other churches, and let
Masses not be sung or read according
to any other formula than that
of this Missal published by Us.
This ordinance applies
henceforth, now, and
forever,
throughout all the provinces of the
Christian world, to all patriarchs,
cathedral churches, collegiate and parish
churches, be they secular or religious,
both of men and of women — even of military
orders — and of churches or chapels
without a specific congregation in which
conventual Masses are sung aloud in
choir or read privately in accord with
the rites and customs of the Roman Church.
This Missal is to be used by all churches,
even by those which in their authorization
are made exempt, whether by Apostolic
indult, custom, or privilege, or even
if by oath or official confirmation
of the Holy See, or have their rights
and faculties guaranteed to them by
any other manner whatsoever.
This new rite alone is to be used
unless approval of the practice of saying
Mass differently was given at the very
time of the institution and confirmation
of the church by Apostolic See at least
200 years ago, or unless there has prevailed
a custom of a similar kind which has
been continuously followed for a period
of not less than 200 years, in which
most cases We in no wise rescind their
above-mentioned prerogative or custom.
However, if this Missal, which we have
seen fit to publish, be more agreeable
to these latter, We grant them permission
to celebrate Mass according to its rite,
provided they have the consent of their
bishop or prelate or of their whole
Chapter, everything else to the contrary
notwithstanding.
All other of the churches referred to
above, however, are hereby denied the
use of other missals, which are to be
discontinued entirely and absolutely;
whereas, by
this present Constitution,
which will be valid henceforth, now,
and
forever,
We order and enjoin that nothing must
be added to Our recently published Missal,
nothing omitted from it, nor anything
whatsoever be changed within it under
the penalty of Our displeasure.
We specifically command each and every
patriarch, administrator, and all other
persons or whatever ecclesiastical dignity
they may be, be they even cardinals
of the Holy Roman Church, or possessed
of any other rank or pre-eminence, and
We order them in virtue of holy
obedience to chant or to read the Mass
according to the rite and manner and
norm herewith laid down by Us
and, hereafter, to discontinue and completely
discard all other rubrics and rites
of other missals, however ancient, which
they have customarily followed; and
they must not in celebrating Mass presume
to introduce any ceremonies or recite
any prayers other than those contained
in this Missal.
Furthermore, by these presents [this
law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority,
We grant and concede in perpetuity that,
for the chanting or reading of the Mass
in any church whatsoever,
this Missal is hereafter to be followed
absolutely, without any scruple of conscience
or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment,
or censure, and may freely and lawfully
be used. Nor are superiors,
administrators, canons, chaplains, and
other secular priests, or religious,
of whatever title designated, obliged
to celebrate the Mass otherwise than
as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare
and ordain that no one whosoever is
forced or coerced to alter this Missal,
and that
this present document
cannot be revoked or modified,
but remains always valid and retain
its full force
notwithstanding
the previous constitutions and decrees
of the Holy See, as well as any general
or special constitutions or edicts of
provincial or synodal councils, and
notwithstanding the practice and custom
of the aforesaid churches, established
by long and immemorial prescription
— except, however, if more than two
hundred years' standing.
It is Our will, therefore, and by the
same authority, We decree that, after
We publish this constitution and the
edition of the Missal, the priests of
the Roman Curia are, after thirty days,
obliged to chant or read the Mass according
to it; all others south of the Alps,
after three months; and those beyond
the Alps either within six months or
whenever the Missal is available for
sale. Wherefore, in order that
the Missal be preserved incorrupt throughout
the whole world and kept free of flaws
and errors, the penalty for
nonobservance for printers, whether
mediately or immediately subject to
Our dominion, and that of the Holy Roman
Church, will be the forfeiting of their
books and a fine of one hundred gold
ducats, payable ipso facto to the Apostolic
Treasury. Further, as for those located
in other parts of the world, the penalty
is excommunication latae sententiae,
and such other penalties as may in Our
judgment be imposed; and We decree by
this law that they must not dare or
presume either to print or to publish
or to sell, or in any way to accept
books of this nature without Our approval
and consent, or without the express
consent of the Apostolic Commissaries
of those places, who will be appointed
by Us. Said printer must receive a standard
Missal and agree faithfully with it
and in no wise vary from the Roman Missal
of the large type (secundum magnum
impressionem).
Accordingly, since it would be difficult
for this present pronouncement to be
sent to all parts of the Christian world
and simultaneously come to light everywhere,
We direct that it be, as usual, posted
and published at the doors of the Basilica
of the Prince of the Apostles, also
at the Apostolic Chancery, and on the
street at Campo Flora; furthermore,
We direct that printed copies of this
same edict signed by a notary public
and made official by an ecclesiastical
dignitary possess the same indubitable
validity everywhere and in every nation,
as if Our manuscript were shown there.
Therefore, no one whosoever
is permitted to alter this notice of
Our permission, statute, ordinance,
command, precept, grant, indult, declaration,
will, decree, and prohibition. Should
anyone dare to contravene it, know that
he will incur the wrath of Almighty
God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter
and Paul.”
Given at St. Peter’s
in the year of the Lord's Incarnation,
1570, on the 14th of July of the Fifth
year of Our Pontificate.
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