MARCH 2, 2013

It does seem like a good idea to begin again the First Saturday Mass and devotions.  I would imagine that since Heaven went to such extraordinary lengths, begun in 1917, to impress upon us the need to do so, it probably means we should take note.

I consider myself very fortunate that there is an ancient rite Mass in my town at a diocesan Church available nearly every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.  For those not so lucky find the most sensible, quiet New Mass you can find on this approaching First Saturday. 

It is an opportunity we might make use of. 

This coming Saturday, March 2, 2013, would be a propitious time to start again these devotions.  There is no need to explain why.

SARTO, SI; RAMPOLLA, NO

Sarto, aka Pope St Pius X

Cardinal Rampolla, almost a Pope

The villains are busy.

They are all staking their claims and making their demands and veiled threats. It grows more amusing every day if one forgets the seriousness of the state we are in.  Let us take a brief survey.

The worldwide media (and let us never forget the telling fact that the world’s major media is controlled by, essentially, six or seven people) is letting the Church know what’s in store for Her if a courageous, strong-willed Pope emerges from the Conclave.  They are discreetly signaling a non-stop media attack.

The Modernists in the Church are letting us know what kind of a man they want to have: one that will continue the “legacy” of post-Conciliar Catholicism, which presumably means chaos, scandal and financial catastrophe, coupled with doctrinal ambiguity and more liturgical banalities.

The Lavender Mafia is not exactly hiding its special brand of nasty little threats.  Disgraced Archbishop Rembert Weakland is an excellent source of information on this unpleasant subject.  That he is still a Bishop “in good standing” even now and with nary a peep from Rome does seem to indicate, as one perceptive writer noted, that "he knows where all the bodies are buried".

The everlastingly unsatisfied Jews are making it clear with honeyed phrases that the new Pope had better be putting their concerns at the top of his agenda from the moment the white smoke appears from the Vatican chimney.  

The painted harridans and trulls who make up many of the female religious orders aren’t keeping their hopes for the next Papacy under their hats (I was going to say wimples, but that sort of thing went out with kneeling).  

The blacks have been demanding one of their own in the papacy, apparently, as if the Vicar of Christ is to be chosen along equal opportunity rules established by the Stupidocracy.  (Cardinal Turkson seems to be thinking along similar lines.)  Now that they’ve got a president why not a Pope, too?

The average go-with-the-flow Catholics being interviewed by the local TV news readers at their parish bingo games are offering their valuable and insightful recommendations as to who should be Christ’s Vicar on earth.  One such lady in Milwaukee on camera suggested, between mouthfuls of chicken, that Dolan is the right man for the job.

The Left wing in Europe has their candidate, the Vienna balloon Cardinal, Christoph von Schonborn. 

Other Catholics, of the supercilious "neo-Catholic" variety, who have grown comfortable with the pervading chaos, are offering their strong suggestions, which can be boiled down to a simple “Let’s stay right where we are”.

Surely the Las Vegas betting barons are even now preparing their odds sheets.

Finally we have to realize with horror that some very dicey Cardinals will be entering that conclave, Cardinals who are, to put it charitably, a little fuzzy about what constitutes Catholicity. [This just in: Cardinal Keith O'Brien says the new Pope should let priests marry.  Another solid thinker enters the Conclave!] The list would include Cardinals Kasper, Levada, Re, Lehmann, Schonborn, Wuerl, Mahony and even jolly Timothy Dolan who to this day is still permitting a special homosexual-friendly “Mass” in New York.  (There are some good men in that group, too.  May they and the hand of God prevail.)

No one knows how this will turn out.  I certainly don’t.  But I know this is not the time for complacency, or in sitting back and “letting God take care of it”.  I am troubled by the non-serious attitude being displayed on so many Catholic websites and blogs about this grave situation, an attitude which can be described as a sort of cheerful expectation akin to a US presidential election.  Is there no one recommending falling upon one's knees in earnest supplication to Our Lord that He will have mercy on his suffering Church and send us the man needed to clean up this mess?  Are we all simply presuming upon God's mercy?  Alas, there is no ironclad guarantee that I am aware of that the man who emerges from the Conclave will be God’s choice.  Unless I am very much mistaken the election of a Supreme Pontiff is not an infallible act protected by the Holy Ghost.  In 2,000 years we have had great Popes, average Popes, weak Popes and a few outright bad apples.  We could get an Arius.  To be sure God can act to prevent the election of a candidate whose occupancy of Peter’s Chair would have been a disaster for His Church, as the famous case of Cardinal Rampolla indicates.  In that case the electors chose Rampolla, but God chose Sarto, who became Pope St Pius X.  Can we just presume God will so act again? 

I do not believe this is the time for playing guessing games as to who will walk out onto that Vatican balcony, or in silly discussions about what skin color the new Pope might have.  I believe that we are already one week into Lent and that if we haven’t yet begun to offer our Lenten penances for the intention that God spare us from a Rampolla and give us instead another Sarto then we had best start now. 

I am at a loss to know what more people would have to see happening in and to God's Church before they begin to realize that the situation is dire.  We now witness the spectacle of the German Bishops approving the "morning after pill" for rape victims (we also await Benedict's authoritative response to this outrage), with all the usual fog-laden language that has become the norm since "the Council".

Is the stench at last becoming noticeable?

"APROPOS", A SAD FAREWELL

It is with a very heavy heart that we write that today we received in the mailbox the final issue of perhaps the finest Catholic journal produced in the English language, Apropos, edited by Scotsman Tony Fraser.  To say that the absence of this publication will hurt the cause of printed truth would be a distinct understatement.  Of the tiny handful of publications still in print that had a sensus Catholicus Fraser's Apropos was head and shoulders above the rest.

When Tony's father, the great Hamish Fraser, died in 1985 many in the Catholic world, including this writer, felt orphaned.  Hamish had been publishing his invaluable publication Approaches for over twenty years, providing English-speaking readers with the cream of European Catholic analysis and in so doing kept us informed and in a fighting spirit ("Keep on praying and punching", was one of his oft-heard endearing remarks).  Hamish tackled issues great and small with that uncanny sense of what was the most important thing to talk about at that particular moment.  He didn't merely react to events in Church and State and then write about them; he wrote about things long forgotten which he brilliantly showed were still relevant to what has happening in the here and now.  A former Communist who had a famous conversion he became so thoroughly Catholic that it was astonishing.  To read him and learn from him was to become a better Christian.  It is one of my joys in life that I had the honor to know him fairly well during the last half-dozen years of his life, even having the pleasure of hosting him in my own home on one of his American visits.   His Catholicity, his erudition, his delightful sense of humor made him more than a journalist covering the most important issues of the day; it made him our second father.

Hamish Fraser

Every ninety days a new issue of Approaches would arrive and all other matters were put on hold.  I had to read it through from cover to cover, with all the additional supplements therein.  Hamish brought us English translations of brilliant thinkers such as Jean Madiran, Arnaud deLassus and the best of Italian,Polish, indeed worldwide Catholic thought.  Insights from Geoff Lawman, Michael Davies, Fr Hugh Thwaites, B.A. Santamaria, Victor Kulanday were found in Approaches.  Catholic news from Australia, Italy, England, Japan, India, the US, Germany, Russia, Ireland and of course Scotland filled those wonderful pages.  But God took Hamish Fraser from us on the Feast of All Saints, an appropriate day in my opinion, and his publication ceased.  The void left was a terrible one.

Thankfully Hamish's son Tony took over shortly thereafter and continuing his father's sterling journalistic efforts called his publication, Apropos.  Tony did yeoman work over the next quarter century taking over the work of his father.  With each issue it grew in stature, and in a short few years was on a par with the excellence of his father's great work.  Tony continued to bring us the best of European, indeed worldwide Catholic opinion, something lacking in every other Catholic publication.  Most journals that take a serious look at the state of the Church tend to concentrate only on their own countries, the American ones being the worst offenders...offenders in the sense that they tended to concentrate only on what was happening in America, important to be sure but not the be-all and end-all of the discussion.  This aspect of both Hamish Fraser's and Tony Fraser's work was perhaps the most important.  In their publications you found opinions and evaluations you found nowhere else, thanks in large part to their indefatigable translation efforts.  If you wanted an accurate view of what worldwide Catholic opinion was, you read Apropos.

But time, the horrendous economy and the internet eventually began to take their toll and it became harder and harder for Tony to continue on.  Readers became more comfortable with instant internet news and less enamoured of careful, thoughtful analysis provided by the printed page.  While the printed page is not going to go away, because there will always be people who want to slow down and reflect upon what they are reading, too many people opted for the internet and that, combined with outrageously rising costs, sealed the doom of this small but vital publication.   We can only hope that Tony Fraser's fine mind will still contribute to the discussion of all things Catholic on his website.  If the prodding of this writer has anything to do with it, please God he will.

We can only lament the loss of something so valuable.  But while lamenting I would recommend to every Catholic, or non-Catholic, reader to write to Tony for back issues.  I have a complete collection of them and I can assure you that there is in those pages an astonishing array of exceptional articles, particularly those translated from other languages.  You will find in them an excellent resource of sound Catholic thought.

I regret that I have to be writing these words.  I had hoped that this day would never have come.  Tony Fraser's publication helped Catholics like myself keep sane and calm in a world of chaos.  The internet, important as it is, has not yet matched what was found in the work of the Frasers.  With the loss of Apropos there is now one less crucial voice represented on the printed page.  Are there any other publications we can support out there that face Catholic issues honestly and without sentimentality?  Yes, there is still Christian Order out of London which is another English language publication of high excellence, edited brilliantly by Mr Rod Pead.  Subscribe to the printed version, please.  We need to support them.  The internet has much of interest but much more of outright junk.  The guiding hand of a level-headed editor is needed to sort out the good from the bad.  It may sound hypocritical to single out for criticism the Catholic blogosphere, which is loaded with poorly-reasoned, emotional, dare I say "reactionary" writing, much of it on a childish level.  The amount of bad Catholic thinking out there is astonishing.  There are Catholic Republican blogs, there are Catholic "this-is-how-I-feel-today" blogs, there are Catholic Zionist bogs (an oxymoron if ever there was one), there are flippant blogs, Catholic Democrat blogs, everything under the sun.  Many are nasty or snotty or supercilious.  They seem, alas, to outnumber the sound and sensible ones.  This is yet another reason why we must lament the loss of printed publications like Apropos, and why we must support great ones like Mr Pead's Christian Order.

I salute Tony Fraser for what he has done.  I encourage him not to ever put down his pen.  And I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

FOR PRESIDENTS DAY

The Eye Witness, as a public service, will begin honoring our various Presidents past and present by publishing from time to time short quotes that succinctly sum up the man.  Here is our first, on "presidents day", the man whose visage graces our $50 bill:

"Intelligence has been commoner among American presidents than high character, but [Ulysses S.] Grant ran against the stream by having a sort of character without any visible intelligence whatever.  He was almost the perfect military man -- dogged, devoted and dumb.  In the White House he displayed an almost inconceivable stupidity.  Whatever was palpably untrue convinced him instantly, and whatever was crooked seemed to him to be noble.  If the American people could have kept him out of the presidency by prolonging the Civil War until 1877, it would have been an excellent investment.  A more honest man never lived, but West Point and bad whiskey had transformed his cortex into a sort of soup."
--H.L. Mencken, A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (Edited by Terry Teachout, 1995), p. 33.

[With thanks to Thomas Dilorenzo at LewRockwell.com]

USING THE TOOLS WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN

We have now arrived at the perfect time of the Liturgical Year when the demons who plague the Church from both the outside and the inside can best be fought.  Lent is here, the time of fasting, penance and spending time on the knees.  It is the perfect time to use these tools, for there is much treachery that is even now being planned which would be inordinately foolish for us to ignore.  Prayer and fasting can overcome those forces which, like vultures, are circling the Vatican to try their best to get one of their own into the Chair of Peter.  If that sounds overly dramatic, it is not meant to be: these people are serious, they are extremely well organized and well connected and they are calm about what they are trying to do.  They are not in a panic.  And they are quite determined.

But not even hellishness as that can withstand the tools we have now, at this very time of Lent, at our disposal...if only we would use them.  My poor efforts this Lent will be directed toward begging Heaven to send us not the Pope we deserve, but the Pope we need.

Many on the Catholic blogosphere, at least in their public writings, are conveying a rather giddy attitude to the historic events of the past week.  To some of these folks it assumes the aura of a presidential election.  There is excitement and hope, coupled with laudatory comments directed at the Holy Father.  There are smiles of excitement on their faces; one can sense that from the tone of their writing.  But on many other faces smiles are not to be found.  Though not giving in to despair these smile-less faces are facing the tragic realities, one of which is that the Vatican is now and has been for a very long time in disarray. 

We at The Eye-Witness must, alas, splash the cold water of reality into the faces of our dear complacent fellow-bloggers.  We have no inside scoops that are unknown to others.  We offer no "official" interpretations of events as some of the more popular blogs are wont to do, nor do we pretend to be an infallible oracle that professes to give the Authentic Catholic Viewpoint on these matters.  But we do reflect on the wisdom of others, and with that in mind we offer a link to that excellent publication Christian Order, edited by the very perceptive Rod Pead.  Mr Pead pulls no punches because Mr Pead is a realist.  While I urge everyone to subscribe to the print edition of this invaluable publication Mr Pead does put on his website from time to time a sampling of what is found in his magazine.

While we all await with hope (and with shudders) the coming Conclave, let us take a cold, hard look at an issue in the Church that - unless the Holy Ghost overcomes it - will, horribly, play a part in the election of the next Pope.  In Part Three of Christian Order's masterful "Chronic Convergence" series, Mr Pead exposes this deadly Achille's Heel.  A sample:

"Last March, during an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York made the following candid observations about the state of the Church and the hierarchy:

     'We have gotten gun-shy, in speaking wit any amount of cogency on chastity and sexual
     morality.'

     'Catholics in general got the impression that what the Second Vatican Council taught, first and
     foremost, is that we should be chums with the world, and that the best thing the Church can do
     is become more and more like everybody else.'

     '[Humanae Vitae] brought such a tsunami of dissent, departure, disapproval of the Church, that
     I think most of us - and I'm using the first-person plural intentionally, including myself - kind of
     substantially said, "Whoa.  We'd better never talk about that, because its just too hot to
     handle".'

Having effectively summarised and confirmed our damning analysis of the ecclesiastical status quo, the Cardinal then evoked the very cowardice and worldly convergence he had just bemoaned.  Addressing the episcopate's protest over Obamacare, he insisted: 'We've grown hoarse saying this is not about contraception, this is about religious freedom.'  He might just as well have said:  Look, we're gun-shy on this difficult issue because it's simply too hot to handle.  And we're uncomfortable being seen as out of step and on the fringe.  So we prefer to talk about 'religious freedom' instead.

Only a team of New York psychiatrists could untie that Gordian knot of duplicity and delusion!  On the one hand, His Eminence clearly sees and laments the problems besetting the Church, even admitting personal culpability.  On the other, he is paralysed:  unable to stop the self-contradiction and inversion of Catholic priorities."

Here you can read the rest of this essential article (and can find the links to Parts One and Two):  http://www.christianorder.com/editorials/editorials_2012/editorials_nov12.html

Even more damning in Mr Pead's assessment is the extent of the influence of the Homoseuxal Mafia within the Church herself as exemplified by such men as Rembert Weakland.  This "mafia" can no longer be said not to exist; the evidence is there and it is terrible.  There is no question they have had an enormous influence thus far and there is little reason to believe they wont have influence in the coming Conclave.  Hence the need for fasting and prayer (especially those precious beads), the stuff of which can cast out demons.

There is nothing amusing in the dramatic events of this past week or of the events to immediately follow.  There is also little to be gained by merely parroting the "party line" that Benedict's shocking move was "humble", "saintly" or "the right thing to do".  Those who don't get caught up in the avalanche of speculations as to who will be the next Pope and instead keep their heads bowed in heartfelt and honest prayer will be the ones who will be doing the most good.

I do not know for sure what happened on February 11th last, but I do know that excitement is about the last reaction I would have about it.  I have seen the famous photo of the lightning strike.  I will not interpret it because I cannot.  But if nothing else it gives one pause.  Or goosebumps.

Our Lenten mortifications have just been deemed by God to be of the first moment.  Wasting the opportunity thus given would be a very big mistake.

BARBARISM UPDATE

It had to happen.

The Pentagon is now going to award metals to drone operators.  From RT Today: http://rt.com/usa/news/pentagon-medal-drone-pilots-151/

We are now, officially, worse than the Communists and the Nazis.

THE ABDICATION

 I was the last to know, apparently.  I only heard the shocking news this morning.

My dear friends, the time to say the beads in now, and unceasingly until the white smoke emerges from the Vatican chimneys.  The time is dark and the situation is very grave.

I will not bore my readers with my uninformed speculations.  We all have our opinions.  Mine are not any more informed than most other Catholic bloggers.  I have no knowledge as to what prompted this.  I have often criticized Benedict for his lack of governance, for not taking a firm hand at the wheel.  Even while admiring the good he has done I have always had to face that cold shower of disappointment over a Papacy that has seemed mired, or stuck, in a groove of ambiguity and contradictions.  It is all very strange.

But now it is time for the beads. 

St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.

UPDATE 13 February 2013:

We're hearing more Gregorian Chant in the abdication news reports background music in one day than the average Catholic has heard in thirty-five years. 

FURTHER UPDATE: 

The US president says that his "prayers are with the Pope".  Isn't that special?  My mind's eye can see Barack and Michelle, after a hard day of murdering innocents with drones and shoving sodomy and abortion down our throats, getting ready to turn in for sleep after brushing their teeth and cleaning the lint out from between their toes, kneeling at their bedside and saying their nightly prayers for Pope Benedict. 

ARCHBISHOP MULLER: A VERY REASONABLE MAN

So sayeth Mr Weldon (quoting +Vincent Nichols), head homosexualist behind the Soho homo masses.

Here is the reference, from William Oddie's column in the Catholic Herald:

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/01/09/have-the-soho-masses-really-been-stopped-their-organisers-are-delighted-they-have-been-put-in-charge-of-the-new-regime-and-are-bent-on-growth/ 

It is comforting to know that the Archbishop wishes to be reasonable on this matter.  After all, the Church must find common ground with pederasts - not, Heaven knows, to try to wean them away from a sin that will bring them possible physical death and certain spiritual death, but to engage in sweet sounding dialog with them, to hear their needs and their wants, to make certain their feelings are never hurt, that their rights are protected by the jackboots of government, to, dare I say it, be allowed to live in married peace.

Tolerance.  Tolerance above all. 

I believe it is reasonable to assume that if Archbishop Nichols reassures his homosexual acquaintance that Archbishop Muller at the CDF is "a reasonable man" that he has spoken at length with him and has concluded that there will be no trouble coming from Rome over the continuing scandal of the homosexual "Masses" in London.  He may have also consulted with his fellow Churchman Timothy Dolan in New York who has shown no inclination to end the homosexual "Masses" in his own diocese.  Timothy Dolan, too, is a reasonable man.

Rome, I fear, has no idea how exasperated and disheartened the faithful are over the spectacle of a Church showing nothing but a rather excessive tolerance towards homosexually-disturbed people.  As a case in point the Church cannot seem even to bring itself to mention the words "mortal sin" when it discusses them.  Indeed it can hardly choke out the word "sodomy" when speaking on this subject.  It can on the other hand muster up the courage to speak in cliches easily enough, or speak of dubious ideas as "sexual orientation", a concept utterly foreign to the greatest minds in the Church for over 2,000 years, and a concept strangely absent from the words and ideas of Christ.  I have heard priests say that we must not be hard on those with a homosexual "orientation", insinuating, one supposes, that such souls were born that way.  [Oddly enough we never hear from these priests any admonitions against those with murderous orientations, or felonious orientations, or  wife-beating orientations.]  They will speak of something called "same sex attraction" in a clinical, antiseptic manner as if it were something akin to the mumps: serious but not deadly.  Some good and holy priests will speak of those who live with this SSA (it even has an acronym now) and how valiantly they struggle against it.  They do not say, rather, that they are struggling with mortal sin but some sort of medical or mental condition.  Some good priests will, perhaps understandably, castigate those who point out that one can sin in thought, word and/or deed, even though there are different degrees of culpability in that formula.  But in being annoyed with those who point out these three degrees of sin, or who quote Christ's famous line about those who"have already committed adultery in their hearts", are not these same good priests falling into a rather dangerous fallacy?  We all struggle with various sins, and mortal sins, and we need the help and graces of holy Church to get us out of these sinful states.  But we don't go around saying, "I have a car theft attraction and I am struggling to live good Catholic life despite that attraction".  Car thievery is not a mental disorder, at least the last time I checked; it is sinning against the 7th Commandment.  We do not need special Masses for car thieves any more than we need them for those who bugger adolescent boys.

Perhaps our dearly beloved Reverend Fathers might start thinking more in terms of sin and less in terms of medical terms.  One cannot elevate that most unspeakable of vices, sodomy, to some kind of unique status requiring a whole new way of Church thinking.

A perfect illustration of what happens in the Church if our priests and Bishops start accepting the veracity of concepts like "same sex attraction" is that it leads in very short order to homosexual "Masses", acceptance of sodomy (or at least tolerating it, as if it were some sort of complaint our poor, old Uncle Fred might have), actions like those of Cardinal Wuerl last March (and sundry other persecutions of Catholic priests who try to act like priests should), a homosexual underworld, or mafia, in the very bosom of the Catholic Church.  The poster boy for this entire mess might be the ubiquitous Rembert Weakland.  

And more strange words from prelates keep coming.  This latest one from a Roman discastery has the whole world abuzz.  The Vatican has no idea, apparently, of the despair of her people who read, as they read the other day, of this Bishop in Rome suggesting that the Church needs to fight to see that those countries which still outlaw sodomy will need to change such laws!  I wonder which one of us has entered Cloud Cuckoo Land, the Bishop or me.

From the Washington Post:

   "Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, also said the church should do more to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in countries where homosexuality is illegal."

What are we to make of this?  Will Paglia clarify?  Will Benedict say something - anything - that will put a lid on such a stupid utterance?  Can someone explain to me why it is wrong to keep sodomy criminalized, to keep its contagion away from people?  Is the Vatican responding, by Paglia's statement, to the courageous moves being taken by Russia to try to slow down the homosexual madness?  Is this the kind of statement that will endear Catholics to those nations and cultures that still believe sodomy to be the heinous crime that it is?  Finally, who in Rome is pushing such ideas?

Archbishop Muller, if we take Vincent Nichols' statement as truthful, has basically told his London brother not to worry, that there will be no thundering from Rome if he allows the homosexual liturgical jamborees to continue.  And why?  The answer, you see, is that Archbishop Muller is a very reasonable man.

CANDELMAS, AND A LAST GOOD BYE

My beloved Christmas officially ended a few days ago, on Candelmas.  As my final joyful farewell until December 25th next, I offer this, from Apollo's Fire:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/95moNkxIgkU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

God bless us...everyone.

CHIVALRY, THY NAME IS FATHER

I must admire Brother Andre Marie of Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire, for getting right down to the heart of the matter.  In this excellent essay Patriarchy and the Defenseless this good man points to one of the great weaknesses of the pro-life movement, the sort of weakness that infects nearly all efforts at doing the right thing, that of accepting the enemy's terms of reference.  In the abortion debate, as Brother Andre so admirably demonstrates, it is the mistaken notion that abortion is only a "woman's issue", and that the forgotten one in all this is the chivalrous Father.

Quote:

Much of the rhetoric of the pro-life movement is directed at deflating feminist propaganda. Some measure of this is wise and necessary. However, it is often the sad fact that those who are on the right side of an issue allow their enemies to dictate the terms of engagement. In so doing, they can fall into various traps, the most significant being the neglect of truths that need to be professed. I witnessed a pro-life man being interviewed recently. He went out of his way to point out that the pro-life movement is not just a bunch of old men, but it is mostly young and female.

Presumably, this was his response to the feminist quip, “if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament,” and other specimens of their gaseous rhetoric.
But several questions need to be asked: Is it not a man’s place, like the knights of old, to “protect the weak, defenseless, and helpless, and fight for the general welfare of all” — to the degree to which his circumstances and station allows? If abortion hurts women — and it does — should not men defend the fairer sex from that pain? And if abortion murders a defenseless little baby — which it does — is it not virtuous to “man up” and protect them from being slaughtered?

This essay cannot be recommended too highly.  The Saint Benedict Center in Richmond had for many years as its leader one of the most brilliant minds in contemporary Christendom, the late Brother Francis MICM, a man whose Catholic sense and erudition was staggering.  Clearly those who spent much of their lives in his presence learned well.  And this article by Brother Andre demonstrates that.

The website of this monastery is www.catholicism.org.

NEWS FROM THE EAST

http://rt.com/business/news/russia-us-meat-ban-134/

http://rt.com/politics/russia-strike-attack-sovereign-140/

http://rt.com/politics/russian-first-ban-gay-722/

After glancing over these links one cannot help but ask, why is Russia getting smarter and the United States getting dumber?  Russia is at least in some areas acting fearlessly in defense of religion, culture and agricultural common sense.  It is an encouraging sign.

When one reads the writings of brilliant Russian minds like Soloviev, or Dostoevsky, it makes one believe that despite all the errors Russia has made in past epochs there is still much hope for a glorious resurgence of these good people.  This is not wishful thinking though one must admit this renaissance is not going to occur in an instant.  There is the demographic implosion to consider, from which Russia, like all other nations, suffers terribly.  Yet in even in the face of that dire situation Russia is taking a few positive steps to reverse the awful trend.  I continue to watch with great interest events coming from that sad land.

Pope Benedict XIV

Then, too, there is the much hoped for reunion of the East and the West, the Orthodox with Rome. That potential reunion should be based on the words of Pope Benedict XIV (+3 May 1758) who said:

          "Eastern Christians should be Catholics; they have no need to become Latins."

To which the noted author Fr Adrian Fortescue adds, "We have no more right to think less of them than they have to despise us.  This has always been most clearly the attitude of the Holy See, best summed up in the words of Benedict XIV [see above].  For our Lord gave his followers most explicit commands that they should belong to the one Catholic Church he founded;  He never commanded them all to say their prayers in Latin or to use the Roman rite."  (The Uniate Churches by Father Adrian Fortescue, page 44)

It is well known that the Mother of God has an especial love for Russia.  When She speaks of "the conversion of Russia" perhaps it is safe to assume that She means a return to Catholic unity as embodied in Benedict XIV's words quoted above.  It is the schism She wants to see ended once and for all.  Please God that this terrible schism will end soon.  They need us, and we need them.

[Editor's Note: Many thanks to The Holy Unia Blogsite for the quotations.] 

DEAR BULLET MANUFACTURERS,

Don't you think it might be a good idea to stop selling bullets to the Federal Government?

You do understand why, gentleman, right?  When you sell billions of ammunition rounds to the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, et al, you do understand whom those bullets are intended for, right?  Have you ever asked yourselves exactly why the government needs all this ammunition?  Have you noticed that the government is busily exploiting every gun tragedy that occurs in an attempt to disarm your fellow citizens?  Are you watching the openly tyrannical moves being made by Washington?  Do you even care?

Again, do you wonder why they are buying bullets, which you are happily selling them, and why they are so desperate to take guns away from their own citizens?

Do we really have to explain this to you?  Are you so terribly busy raking in millions of bucks that you cannot see beyond your bank books?
  
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope which we will use to hang them," sayeth Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

 Now...will you kindly stop selling them the rope?