The night is passed

"Brethren, knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep.  For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed.  The night is passed and the day is at hand."



"Fear not, Mary, for thou has found grace with the Lord: behold thou shalt conceive, and shall bring forth a son."

ISRAEL SHAMIR REFLECTS: OUR LADY OF SORROW

Our Lady of Sorrow
[This was written after the Israeli invasion of Bethlehem, in March 2002].

In the Upper church of Annunciation in Nazareth, there is a striking collection of images,
the homage of artists to Mary: in a setting of blue-and-golden flowers, a dainty Virgin in a
colourful kimono holds her child in ceremonial Japanese royal robes; a naïve Gothic face of
Madonna, transferred from French Cluniac illuminations; a Chinese Queen of Heaven carved of
precious wood by Formosa devotees; a richly inlaid Cuban statue of Virgen del Cobre; a Polish
Black Madonna; a tender face of the Byzantine Mother of God, and a modernist, steely Madonna
from the United States all look from the walls of the church and unite us in one human family.
There is hardly an image in the world as universal and poignant as that of the Virgin and the
Child.

Wherever you go, from Santiago de Compostella in the far west of Spain to the golden
domes of Russia, from frozen Uppsala in Sweden to Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, you will
find this adorable face. The best artists depicted her compassionate features, her love for her
child and her sorrow. Botticelli painted her with a pomegranate and among the Kings of the East;
Michelangelo and Rafael, Cimabue and Titian, van der Weyden and Fra Filippo Lippi were
inspired by her image. This unique mix of a young girl and mother, of vulnerability and
protection, of admiration and love, formed the spiritual and inspirational base of our civilisation.
She appeared to a Mexican peasant, and her flower-covered image arrested the strife and
united Native Americans and Spaniards in one nation. She gave her rosary to Saint Dominic and
a letter to Portuguese kids in Fatima. Prophet Muhammad saved and cherished her icon found in
the Mecca shrine, writes Maxim Rodinson. She appeared to a wealthy Jewish banker Alphonse
Ratisbonne, and he took orders and built the convent of the Sisters of Zion in En Karim. A
Palestinian Muslim in a refugee camp of Lebanon preserved the image he took from his native
Galilee, tells Elias Khoury in his novel Bab Al-Shams (recently translated into Hebrew by Moshe
Hakham and edited by Anton Shammas). Syrian astronauts asked for her protection in the shrine
of Seidnaya before the ir flight on the Soviet space shuttle1
.
In medieval legends, the Jews were often perceived as enemies of the Virgin. The
Talmud refers to her in most blasphemous and hostile way. A certain column-stump on
Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa marks the place of a legendary attack of Jews on her person, while in
Antioch in 592, Jews were found despoiling her image. These are old tales. And now some new
facts. This week in Bethlehem, a Jew shelled the Virgin. A Jewish soldier in the formidable tank Merkava-3, constructed according to US technology at US taxpayer’s expense fired a shell from
a distance of fifty yards at the statue of the Madonna a-top the Holy Family church in the
Nativity town.

The Virgin lost an arm, and her pretty face was disfigured. She became one of a hundred
Palestinian women shot by the Jews in the present outburst of war. This seemingly unnecessary
act of vandalism could not have been an accidental shot. No terrorist hid behind her gentle figure
on the pinnacle of the hospital church. At fifty yards, you make no mistake. It could have been
orders; it could have been a spontaneous expression of feelings by a Jewish fanatic. Our world
rewinds full speed back into the Dark Ages, and as Israel rekindled traditional Jewish hostile
rejection of Christianity, it can not be excluded.

After the shelling by the Israeli soldier

(Taken from Our Lady of Sorrow, The Collected Essays from the Holy Land by Israel Shamir, which can be ordered here.)

A little common sense about Ferguson somehow got slipped in

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, not one of my pinups, said this on national TV last night in a discussion about the riotous nonsense in Ferguson:


"The white police officers wouldn't be there if you weren't killing each other," Giuliani said.

Well, yes, that does seem obvious.  But how few people will come to that logical conclusion in the heat of passion.  And 93% of black murders are committed by other blacks.  The article which discusses Giuliani's statement can be found on the neocon rag Newsmax (a magazine/website that offers very little else other than war-mongering).  You can access it here.

President Puppet and Junior Emperor of the World is, of course. bloviating about the faults of the justice system, and not about the fact that 80% of violent crime is committed by fatherless young black males.

Meanwhile as we speak, Negro rioters and looters are all doing their Kwanzaa shopping early, and the little hamlet of Ferguson is turning into a hell hole.

God help the residents there.

At least someone is concerned about the fate of Christianity in Europe

In a recent discussion about various problems in the world a political leader brought up the touchy subject of the persecution of Christians and the silence of the European Union.  The article states in part:

"...EU officials are reluctant to speak about the persecution of Christians by Muslim militants in Iraq or Syria or elsewhere, because they fear that this would be perceived as politically incorrect.  Meanwhile there is a growing Christianophobia in the world, he said.

"Most of EU members avoid discussing the issue.  They are ashamed to pronounce it as they were ashamed to put a phrase acknowledging the Christian roots of Europe into the EU Constitution,:

"If you don't remember and don't respect your own roots and traditions, how can you respect the traditions of other people?"

Who made such a statement?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

http://rt.com/news/207927-russia-europe-business-usual/

Stan Freberg is My Hero

The darker the days become (and we're not referring to the approaching Winter months) the more we need a little dose of humor, just to keep our heads above water.  Those of my readers who are old enough should remember the delightful antics of one of our great Wits, Stan Freberg.

Freberg is a unique character.  Whether he ventured into radio, films, animated cartoons, essays or television he always had a knock for making us chuckle.  He started as a teenager doing voice work for Warner Brothers Cartoons and from that time on whenever crazy comedy was required Freberg was there to supply it.

For your amusement, then, we present to you one of his more famous radio skits.  Amazingly, he predicted the lunatic lengths to which political commissars would go to censor our thoughts and our speaking.  We believe Freberg saw all this coming back in the 1960s.



And if you would like to see what Freberg could do with a humdrum TV commercial, try this:




Happily Mr Freberg is still with us and still keeping smiles on our faces while imparting his wit and wisdom.

Neil Clark is STILL confused

Several months back we linked to a piece by Mr Neil Clark which posed some very interesting questions. He has subsequently followed up with another confession of his confusion:

http://rt.com/op-edge/172860-us-ukraine-nato-iraq-libya/

That was in July.

But he continues to be confused:

http://rt.com/op-edge/206643-confused-syria-democracy-election-uk/

To which I would reply, "Fear not, Mr Clark.  We're all still confused".

Just a note on the Cardinal Kasper African comments

Kasper in mufti

Regarding all the musings about Cardinal Kasper's famous remarks to the African episcopate that they should "not be telling us" what to do or think, which we have been reading about endlessly since the Bastard Synod, I am amazed that most people consider Kasper's fuming as an example of racism.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Kasper is not a stupid man.  Petty, dishonest and arrogant, yes; stupid, no.  We repeat: racism had nothing to do with his remarks.

What his remarks did have something to do with was sodomy, and everyone should have been able to see that quite clearly right away and not confront him with silly accusations of racism. The "racism" story only produced a needless red herring issue and took attention away from the homosexuals. The African Bishops have their heads firmly on their shoulders when it comes to sex perversion and can see what evils emerge from the mortal sin of sodomy...and want nothing to do with it. Kasper it seems wants everything to do with it, and that is the reason why he didn't want to hear what the African Bishops had to say.  And he wants to apparently give this mortal sin his blessings.  Why else would he be working tirelessly to see that the Holy Catholic Church blesses it as well?

The "racism" line was peddled by those who for whatever reason were not keeping their eyes on the ball. The more mendacious writers use the race card whenever they can so it is doubly important that we keep our minds clear on this.  Unwittingly, some good Catholics took the focus off buggery by calling Kasper's remarks racist.

While it is true the hubbub caught Kasper off guard at first he deftly handled it with his customary reliance on lying and changing the subject.

Krazy Kardinal Kasper.  Never underestimate the intentions of vile men.

Which is it, Cardinal O'Malley?

Cardinal O'Malley, we laymen would like to know: which is it?

On the one hand you want the Vatican to act against your brother-Bishop Flynn for supposedly hiding a homosexual predator priest, as stated here.

And on the other hand, you want the Church to accept sodomitical relationships, as stated here.

Just which is it, Your Eminence?  Do you want to protect the Church from an onslaught of homosexual men who are buggering adolescent boys, or do you want the Church to accept two sodomites living together who will have the legal right to "adopt" young boys who will be eventually buggered by them?

In lieu of an explanation we in the pews can only conclude one of two things.  Either you are losing your mind completely or you are engaging in the worst form of blatant hypocrisy it has been my misfortune to witness.

Which, exactly, is it, Your Eminence?

Either way, you are a disgrace to the cloth you wear and the Church you are shaming.

Resign.

The Great Father in Washington

I recommend to my readers this very amusing and very sensible article by Jack Perry over at LewRockwell.com.

A sample:

When there are no successes to point towards as a reason to be confident in one’s government, the Great Father can be counted on to use fear of a scary enemy to rally the people. A lie can go around the world twice before the truth has even tied its shoes. The Great Father knows this and he also knows that it’s best to have a few enemies waiting in the wings to distract the American people. To be sure, certain among the American people (the species Ovis aries americanus) will fall for this every time. Which is why it remains effective and American foreign policy infomercials succeed in selling wars without genuine objectives. In fact, were U.S. foreign policy a product, it would be sold on late-night infomercials along with spray-on “hair”, vegetable slicers, and compilation CDs of 1970s hits. And if you purchased it, you would get a few wars, absolutely free. Let’s have a look at some of the Great Father’s latest products.

First up, we see “frightening” reports from the Great Father and NATO (North Atlantic Tubthumping Oligarchy) that the Russians are getting frequent-flier miles close to NATO and U.S. airspace. Why, look at that! The Great Father and NATO were just minding their own business trying to lure Ukraine into the car with promises of candy when here came the Russians to interfere! Those Russian waskally wabbits are making NATO fighter aircraft look like Elmer Fudd! Excuse me, Great Father, but those are your enemies, not mine. Vladimir Putin and the Russians have not threatened me, nor are they saying they want me to live under the Russian government. Nor do they pick my pockets, which is more than I can say for you, Great Father. The reason Russian aircraft are doing this, Great Father, is because you are provoking them over in Ukraine. By the way, the Russians warned you against doing that. So Russian aircraft are lurking around NATO airspace, so what? Am I supposed to be afraid of this?

Among other things the author suggests wryly that the best solution to Emperor Obama's delusions of grandeur might be to have him engage in a martial arts contest with his bete noire, Vladimir Putin.

I believe I would enjoy watching that myself.

The Party of Sodomy and Abortion has lost; the Party of Usury and War has won.

Whoopie.

(And the winners won't do one single damned thing to act like statesmen and honest representatives by slowing down even a little bit the moral destruction of the nation.  So not only do we get more war and usury from the winners, we'll also get more sodomy and abortion, too. Isn't democracy just wonderful?)

THE U.S.S. LIBERTY, a Veteran's Day Lament

A story worth remembering:

http://chuckspinney.blogspot.com/2014/11/assault-on-liberty-revisited.html

Not necessarily related, but equally sickening:

http://forward.com/articles/206542/how-the-israel-lobby-set-beto-orourke-right/?p=all

And if vomiting is your pleasure, you could read this:

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/11/11/oligarchs-for-israel/

THE MORAL MENSHEVIKS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

In case anyone isn't noticing, the Roman Catholic Church is suffering from a crisis probably unprecedented since Christ told Peter that he was the Rock.  Many of the causes of this are known, many unknown.  But our purpose here at The Eye Witness is to bring the realities to the fore, face them and then encourage the laity to pick up the pieces of the nearly-completely shattered Church, and also to encourage those clerics who are at last beginning to see through the haze and are beginning to speak out.

We got into the blogging adventure because we woke up one day and asked ourselves, "What are we doing about this horrendous mess, other than griping about it?"   So we began The Eye Witness, not to compete with other fine blogs, but to take a somewhat different approach to them yet all the time working toward the goal we all share, namely: the restoration of our badly bleeding wounded Church.

To that end, in addition to our own writing efforts, it is our pleasure to alert our readers to the writings of those whose understanding of the situation is many times greater than our own.  We trust our readers will go to the links we provide and be informed and edified.  Brother Andre Marie over at Saint Benedict Center is one of those people whose writings are always well considered and based upon a clear understanding of the Catholic Faith.  We therefore link to another excellent article of his which appeared on the Center website:

http://catholicism.org/the-deliquescent-hermeneutic-of-moral-mensheviks.html

A quote:

"Today’s neo-conservatives in the Church — also called “neo-Catholics” — are the doctrinal, moral, and theological equivalent of Russia’s revolutionary Mensheviks. As Solzhenitsyn often said, Mensheviks prepare the field for Bolsheviks (as did the Girondins for the Jacobins)."

I cannot recall if the problem of certain popular Catholics has ever been more succinctly stated.  The revolutionary metaphor used by the author is apt and perfectly describes the present situation in Catholicism. And a complete understanding of this phenomenon is required if we are to keep our wits about us as we continue our bailout efforts on the sinking Ship the ultimate goal of which is to reverse the revolution.

Brother Andre's article confronts facts that others have spoken of but with a perspective rarely heard anywhere else.  That is why I like to read him.  In the above article he finds the Mensheviks and names them.

And now today he offers us yet another incisive discussion:

http://catholicism.org/ad-rem-no-238.html

What is one of the most significant maladies infecting today's teachers of the Faith?  Brother Andre spells it out:

"One undeniable hallmark of Catholic dogma has always been its clarity. The Church, as a good teacher, does not guide her children in halting speech. She is not vague or ambiguous. Indeed, to teach infallibly and thus bind the faithful under pain of grievous sin would absolutely require clarity. Since it is manifestly contrary to reason for a teacher to demand assent of the intellect to something ambiguous or vague, how can Christ’s faithful be bound in conscience to believe something ephemeral or given to a multiplicity of contrary interpretations?"

This article, too, I cannot recommend highly enough.

The good God has given us a few more brave souls who are beginning to speak out.  Brother Andre's efforts I believe have started to bear fruit in this arena.  He and others will help us to be prepared and be well armed and will help the timid, clerical or lay, to begin putting on the battle armor.

"Save us, ere we perish", cried the terrified Apostles to Christ at the raging storm at sea.  A little clarity from the See of Peter would go a long way to keep us from perishing.

The difference between Christ at that moment and the current pontificate is that Our Lord woke up and calmed the storm.  We here will do our bit to wake up the Captain.

BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER: May God give him strength

I wish to profoundly thank our friends at the Vox Cantoris blog for alerting us to this stunning statement by Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan.  This is the reason for blogging.  And this is the reason I hold blogs like Vox Cantoris in high esteem and why it is our great honor to link to them on our blog here.  Vox Cantoris has brought us the cool, refreshing drink of pure water by Bishop Schneider to wash down the choking dust and mould that has clogged our throats since that awful Synod.

This is a great man.  May God grant him health, strength and continued courage.

Read it here with the appropriate links:

http://voxcantor.blogspot.com/2014/11/fierce-wind-blowing-from-kazakhstan.html

Well does Vox Cantoris refer to this as a "fierce wind blowing from Kazakhstan".

THE SYNOD: WHAT NEXT?

Frankly, we are as sick of writing about this sickening Synod as most are of reading about it.  But as many have stated, the job was accomplished:  a world has been scandalized.  That was the intention, and that was the result.  I will not play the game of mental gymnastics when it comes to the Holy Father's participation in this scandalization operation; he is not a stupid man.  Incoherent at times, but not stupid.  He has unchained destructive forces.

Those forces were more or less kept at bay in decades past.  That is not the case now.

When the leader sets the tone, either directly or by silence, the generals tend to follow.  As the old but rather crude phrase has it, shit flows downhill.

We are told that at least 50 Cardinals at the Synod came out in favor of saying that a sin that cries to Heaven for vengeance is, rather, a gift.

Fifty Cardinals apparently believe that.

How many of those 50 are practicing sodomites themselves is anybody's guess; my guess would be quite a few.

The teachings of the Church took a terrible hit at the Bastard Synod.  And it has not recovered, nor will it recover for a long while, most likely decades.  But strange as it may seem to some we have among the losses seen a rather interesting gain: the scales are beginning to drop from the eyes of some formerly tepid Catholic writers and bloggers (and Cardinals?) whose hearts were/are in the right place but who could not bring themselves to believe that men at the top could actually be conniving for the completion of the Modernist Revolution in the Catholic Church.

That is a net gain which we should not take lightly.  I am not saying that this fact alone will save the Church from the next debacle being contemplated by the Gnomes of Vatican City but even a few new recruits cannot help but do good in what is shaping up to be a huge battle, if not a full-scale war for the very heart and soul of Catholicism.  A momentum has been built up that must not be squandered especially now since anyone with a shred of common sense has to realize that the wounded immoralists of the Synod are now regrouping and laying the groundwork for the next assault.  They have seen their enemy and they will be surely planning to circumvent another Catholic backlash from occurring at their next jamboree in 2015.  They are nothing if not clear-eyed people, acting in concert with a deliberate end in view.

The Chinese call 2015 the Year of the Sheep, a note I provide for your amusement but not without a sense that maybe even the pagans have got something interesting to add to the discussion.

But what kind of sheep?  I hope the kind that will mention to their shepherd that it is better to steer clear of cliffs. If one of the shepherd's own Cardinals can remind him of this duty then certainly laymen can too.

(Here is his address in case you are interested:

His Holiness, Pope Francis 
Apostolic Palace 
00120 Vatican City

An airmail stamp to Europe from the USA is less than a buck.)

When I write to the Pope I will enclose a copy of the following photo:

Pray for these poor little children

[With thinks to Vox Cantoris for the image.  Please God that these little children will somehow be spared the horrors of such a monstrous situation.]

It is obvious that these bad ideas which came from this misbegotten Synod will be back next year with a vengeance and that strategies are being prepared to circumvent any Catholic counter response.  What, then, must be done?

Prayer, of course.  First and foremost.  Like countless others this writer offered his paltry prayers every day of the Synod, but with the knowledge that wounded animals are extremely vicious it would behoove us to enlarge upon those prayers to keep the wounded animals at bay in 2015.

And then there is penance, that remedy strongly suggested by God's Mother at the time of the celebrated Fatima visitations a century ago.  What kinds of penances?  Performing faithfully the duties of our state in life, for one.  And the Church would always add to that the balm of fasting.  But we know all this.  I don't want to sound like a schoolmarm reminding everyone of what they already know needs to be done.  Everyone reading this knows perfectly well what must be done. (I am not so much outlining a certain program as merely suggesting common sense.)

Catholics have been profoundly shocked and stunned in the last few weeks, be they layfolk, writers or lowly bloggers.  It is horrible to imagine that there are high personages in the Church who are our bitterest enemies.  Who would not be shocked if their mother suddenly turned to them one day and said that everything she has taught them for their entire lives is just so much rubbish.  But facts have to be faced.  The Synod fathers - and I mean a substantial number of them - have done just exactly that.  The example of a cheat and a liar like Cardinal Kasper should be enough to convince.  He is petty, dishonest, vengeful and powerful.  He has the ear and the confidence of the Pope.  Take note: to dismiss him lightly would be a serious mistake.  He is very much like a wounded, bleeding wolverine.

And the formerly complacent Catholic writers and thinkers - and Churchmen! - have awakened to some of the sinister machinations of the more repellent members of our suffering Church.  They have seen that what happened in Rome was a smoothly-run propaganda operation, superbly done by professionals who know how to get it done.

This awakening has been a long time coming and they have started at last to speak out.  It has also, to the delight of not a few, exposed the shallowness of the papolater crowd, the Weigels, etc.  That also is a net gain in this writer's opinion.  I choose my internet reading as carefully as possible so I tend to avoid the blowhard bloggers, the ever-reliable Pollyannas who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.  Since I don't waste precious time reading them or being concerned by their shallow thinking I reserve for them only the kind of pity that hopes they will one day see through their sophistries, papal adulations and doctrinally-challenged views.  I hope they will soon join others who are beginning to see through the fog.

Will God let true Catholicism win the next round against the clerical villains, or will He allow the rot to go deeper?  I honestly don't know.  Frankly, to be brutally honest, I am not optimistic.  I have only to look in the mirror to understand that God is holding Catholics, high and low, responsible for this due to their sins.

Despair, however tempting, is not in the cards, it must be said.  The Faith has made one or two gains in this diabolical debacle.  Scene Two of this nightmare begins next year (though there will be plenty of Modernist bilge flowing from the mouths of the well-known clerical bastards between now and then).  While they are preparing their assault we are preparing our defense.

I was edified by this recent piece by Brother Andre Marie, MICM.  Brother Andre can be said to be a Catholic realist.  When you read the article you will see why.  He is a defender as well as a realist.

It could be said that we need to be keyboard Cristeros just now.  And that would entail working with clarity, with charity, with firmness and a recognition of the job which has to be accomplished.

Can this be considered funny?

Well, yes, in a weird sort of way:

http://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2014/10/17/trial-ordered-woman-accused-killing-estranged-wife/

A new kind of "marital spat" I suppose, and one which illustrates that when people degrade themselves in an unnatural way murder cannot be far behind.