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| Transcription: Sermon for the Feast of Christ the King [On Catholics and Pro-Abortion Candidates] |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2024, 11:16 AM - Forum: Rev. Father David Hewko
- No Replies
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The following transcription is graciously provided by The Catholic Trumpet [some minor adaptation and formatting changed].
Fr. Hewko - Catholics Cannot Vote for Abortion
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/Screen%20Shot%202024-10-28%20at%203.31.39%20PM.png/:/rs=w:1280)
☩ PRAEDICATIO ☩ by THE ☩ TRUMPET [Slightly adapted and reformatted] | October 28, 2024
Today, the message is unmistakable: Catholics face an uncompromising choice between fidelity to Christ the King or complicity with a world descending into godlessness. Modern governments wage war on faith and life itself, mocking Christ’s rightful kingship and promoting laws that enshrine the killing of the innocent. As Catholics, we stand in a political landscape where both Trump and Harris champion abortion in one form or another—whether pushing for unrestricted access to abortion pills or expanding it through legislative loopholes. There is no choice here for a faithful Catholic, no "lesser evil" to cling to. Voting for either is, in effect, voting for the continued slaughter of innocents.
Rooted in Catholic tradition and the undeniable truth of the Gospel, this sermon pulls no punches: Catholics cannot sell their souls in the voting booth. In the words of Pope Pius XI, Christ reigns not only in hearts but in laws, institutions, and societies. We must heed this call for Catholic integrity, rejecting political systems that defy God’s law. Now more than ever, we need the reign of Christ and the Immaculate Heart of Mary—our only path to true peace and salvation in a culture bent on self-destruction. Stand with Christ the King, or face the inevitable judgment of those who choose to stand against Him.
Due to the urgent nature of this message, we prioritized delivering it to you swiftly and have not yet completed our second round of proofreading. As a result, minor grammatical or spelling errors may still be present. We appreciate your understanding and will work to correct any oversights in the next day or two.
The views expressed in PRAEDICATIO represent the teachings of traditional Catholic priests committed to the unaltered doctrines of the Catholic Faith. The Catholic Trumpet seeks only to faithfully transcribe these sermons for the benefit of readers who share a dedication to Catholic tradition.
Errors in transcription are unintentional; kindly report any you notice to thecatholictrumpet@gmail.com.
+JMJ+
KINGSHIP OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, "KING OF KINGS LORD OF LORDS"
BY: FR. HEWKO
[Transcription of Fr. Hewko's sermon for the Feast of Christ the King - October 27, 2024]
Today is the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ the King.
The Epistle is taken from Saint Paul's letter to the Colossians chapter 1.
Brethren, we give thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for in Him were all things created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and in Him, and He is before all, and by Him all things consist, and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may hold the primacy, because in Him it has well pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Holy Gospel From Saint John chapter 18.
At that time Pilate said to Jesus, Are thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or have others told it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from hence. Pilate therefore said to him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest it, I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Thus are the words of the Holy Gospel.
You'll find at the entrance The Recusant copies available for Autumn Issue Number 62. There's some very good articles, especially the conference of Archbishop Lefebvre against the liberalism, and he speaks of the reign of Christ the King. It's so very fitting for this feast.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen. We adore Jesus Christ the King.
He is King, why? Because of the Hypostatic Union. We learned that in the Catechism. What is the Hypostatic Union? [It] is the Divine Person of the Son, assuming, taking up to Himself the human nature, that God became flesh for us, so that we could say the person of Jesus Christ is not the person of, it's not a human person, he's the person of God.
We are all human persons. You all have a personality, and the essence of a person which makes up who you are, but it's all the human nature. But our Lord Jesus Christ, His Person is not human.
It is the Divine person. His nature is human, but his Person is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost from all eternity. And that's why Saint John the Baptist will say of Christ, 'His coming forth is from the days of eternity.'
And Daniel the prophet will say 'His days are from before time, before eternity.' And in this Mass, all throughout this Mass of Christ the King, you have these constant references to the Eternal Kingship of Jesus Christ. Look at the intro to Apocalypse 5. 'The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor.
To him be glory and empire forever and ever. Now remember, the Muslims deny that God can die, and God in his divinity cannot die. But they reject that Christ is God.'
But this refutes the Muslim errors that Christ truly was the Lamb, and he truly died. And in the book of Apocalypse also, our Lord says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, who was dead, but now liveth." So Christ did die.
And that's the only way God could die for us, was to take on human flesh. It was truly an invention of love, an invention of the solution to the worst of all problems, which was how to restore the human race that had fallen from the Fall of Adam and Eve. And the sin of Adam shut the gates of heaven.
So how is it possible, since it takes blood to wash away sins, how would heaven ever be open again? And the answer was within the Holy Trinity. And it says this in the Psalms, "And the Son said to the Father, The Lord said to my Lord, I am this day I have begotten thee. You are my Son.'
And the Son says to the Father, 'Holocausts and oblations You didn't want,' the sacrifice of the Old Testament, animals, bulls being slaughtered, the sprinkling of the blood of the lambs, the lambs being roasted, 'sacrifice and oblation You didn't want.' And then I said, 'Then said I,' says God the Son, 'I will come, Ecce Venio, behold, I will come.' I will take on the human nature.
And this will solve all the problems. Because if I take on the human nature, then the blood can be spilled and man can be redeemed. And our Lord could easily have miraculously taken on a human flesh, miraculously arranged His death and work the Redemption.
He could have done that without any cooperation of anybody else. But notice our Lord loves to recruit helpers, co-redeemers in His work. He could hear your confessions today. Just come down from heaven and sit in the confessional. [He] will absolve your sins. He could come down from heaven and offer the Mass.
He could easily do it. And He did it, actually, in the convent of St. Gertrude many years ago when they had no Mass and no priest. And then Christ himself came and said Mass. So He could do that. And He could do it all over the world, by bilocation. No problem for Him.
But He has chosen to recruit priests, poor, weak clay to be consecrated, excuse me, to be ordained and bishops consecrated to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the same Sacrifice of Calvary. And so Our Lord, to work the Redemption, He was honored to have a Co-redemptrix, a Mediatrix, which would be the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So as St. Louis de Montfort said, 'God came to us through Mary.' He wants us to come to Him through Mary, through Her immaculate heart. That is God's desire, to bring the true peace in the world. But the modern world doesn't want the peace of God.
Ever since the French Revolution, especially, was the beginning of the war of the Freemasonic Lodges and the conspiracies of Satan to wage war against Jesus Christ, the King. How do we get rid of Christ the King? We have to attack His name, remove Him from the governments, therefore secular governments. And that's why the Freemasons, as Pope after Pope after Pope, Pius VI, Pius VII, Pope Leo XIII, Pius IX, Pius X, Pius XI even, who had the solution in his hands [condemned Freemasonry]. Pius XI was given the solution by the Virgin Mary to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He had more interest in solving things through the League of Nations. Unfortunately, Pope Pius XI, he had already had high hopes for the League of Nations, which we call now the United Nations, and which Pope Paul VI would say to the United Nations in his address to them, 'You are the last hope of mankind.' Imagine that, a Pope saying that to a whole bunch of scoundrels and degenerates and enemies of Jesus Christ. 'You are the last hope of mankind.' Very, very sad.
So, Pope after Pope has reminded the whole world and especially leaders of countries and the leader prelates of the church, preach the kingship of Jesus Christ, proclaim his kingship. Listen to Pope Pius XI speaking of this. Christ as our Redeemer, this is from Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI on the Kingship of Christ.
Christ as Our Redeemer purchased the Church at the price of His own blood. As priest, He offered Himself and continues to offer Himself as a victim for our sins. Is it not evident then that His kingly dignity partakes in a manner of both these offices? It would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the Father, all things are in His power.
And this is what St. Paul just said in this epistle, a very beautiful adoration and glory given to Jesus Christ, 'Through him all things are made, by him all things are made, in him all things consist.' Everything was made by Jesus Christ to the tiniest cell, to the biggest mountain. All the galaxies were in the mind of Jesus Christ and He created them with the Father and the Holy Ghost at the beginning, the Six Days of Creation, not 60 million years, six days of creation. And then Our Divine Lord, 'He is King,' says St. Paul, 'over again of all things visible and invisible.' And then he goes [thru] the hierarchies of Angels, whether of Thrones or Dominations or Principalities or Powers.
All things were created by Him and in Him. So as St. Augustine would say, 'All creation is a wonderful garden created for the glory of Jesus Christ the King. All is for His glory and all will give Him glory.'
We often wonder, well, how can this be since so many men hate Christ and so many men attack him and so many governments dethrone him? And it looks like the enemies of the Church are strangling our Catholic Church. And all governments today have become the last bastion, for example, to defend pro-life, to defend children and to stand against abortion. The last in the modern world was the United States.
It used to be you had a choice between all these rotten candidates who were for abortion, but there was used to always be at least one who was pro-life. And then all the priests and even the Novus Ordo bishops said, 'Don't vote for that one, vote for [the pro-life candidate] because he's pro-life.' And even Protestants say, 'Don't vote for that one, vote for him because he's pro-life.' But now we've come, we have become so degenerate that we have fallen. America has fallen. America has fallen hard and it's been overtaken and it's now in the hands of the enemies of Jesus Christ.
And now there is no option. It's just pro-abortion or pro-abortion. [As] there were centuries before Christ came, where they sacrificed children. That was normal policy in pagan countries. Even the Aztecs, this was what shocked the Spaniards when they arrived in Mexico, there was human sacrifice everywhere.
It was a continuation of that pre-Christian era, the Old Testament sacrifices, the Amorites who killed their children, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians. And sometimes the Jews would jump in there and adopt the practices of the pagans and start marrying their girls who were pagan. And their girls would lead them into the pagan religions.
And so they would sacrifice their babies. Jeremiah the Prophet thunders against this and he speaks of the valley of Tophet. In the valley of Tophet, Tophet in Hebrew means the Valley of the Drums because the pagans would pound the drums with pounding rock music as they sacrificed the babies and threw them into the fire to [honor] Baal or Moloch.
And the little babies, of course, fighting for their life, they'd be screaming. So to drown out the screams of the babies and drown out their wicked consciences, they would pound the drums. And the same thing's going on today.
How many going to drive into the Planned Parenthood are driving pounding rock music as they drive into the parking lot to drown their conscience from what they're about to do? And the young lady goes in with her boyfriend and sometimes even their own father. Imagine that. Walk into Planned Parenthood and they get all set up for the procedure, as they nicely call it. And notice, of course, the room is there's no germs. They make sure it's all antiseptic and there's no bugs that they can catch. Everything is clean to work the most disgusting and foul murder abortion.
And this practice of infanticide and child killing always shows up when a society becomes pagan. Marks of paganism is body piercing, tattoos all over the place. These are all signs of paganism and degeneracy.
And then, of course, all the sins that come with it, as St. Paul lists, 'disobedience to parents, rebellion, pride, lack of respect for the elder people.' All this is going. And we are back to killing our own babies.
And if you can kill your own baby, you can kill anybody. Nobody respects anything. And that's where we're at. We Americans. And we're in this position where, who do you vote for? Who do you vote for?
Listen to what happened in 1902. In 1902, there was a huge volcano that erupted on the island of Martinique, the French Caribbean island of Martinique [and its major city, St. Pierre]. [St. Pierre, which was a bustling port city and a significant commercial hub in the Caribbean. The city was known as “the Paris of the Antilles” due to its fine architecture, paved streets, and electricity.]
In 1902, it was it's still claimed to be the worst volcanic eruption, even more severe than Mount St. Helens, in 1902 [on Mount Pelée]. What was going on? There was a governor there, Governor Louis Mouttet, was his name. And they were having elections.
And the Freemasons were putting out all of the newspapers all about the elections coming up. And there were rumblings coming from the mountain. Mount Pelée was the name of the mountain, Mount Pelée.
There were strange signs. There were some earthquakes. And then the town below, St. Pierre, many snakes, poisonous snakes started coming down from the mountain because they knew something was coming. And centipedes, big, huge centipedes, a foot long started invading people's homes and backyards. Ants everywhere, termites, even the horses were rearing up and acting strange and agitated.
But the candidates for the election were telling everybody there's nothing to worry about.
And then more earthquakes started to rumble on Mount Pelée. The governor, Louis Mouttet, ordered voters who started to flee the city and planning to leave and fill the boats and get out get off the island. Even the Catholic priests started warning the people, there's a sign from God, He's angry with the city.
Because the Freemasons in this city [of St. Pierre], they didn't hold back of their mockeries and blasphemies against Jesus Christ. So this governor, he even ordered people back to town by force of law and threat of imprisonment, because he wanted the elections to go through. Even the U.S. consul Thomas Prentiss, wrote to Theodore Roosevelt, President at the time, saying the refusal of elections seems to be something unthinkable.
It's a nightmarish situation when it seems that no one can or does not want to face the truth. So they wanted the elections at any cost. But God didn't want them.
And then the day before May 8th, May 7th, on St. Vincent Island, which was not too far, 100 miles or so from Martinique, a volcano exploded on May 7th. But the scientists and the Freemasons and the newspapers were telling everybody that this was the earth releasing its pressure, so we're going to be safe here on the island of Martinique, so the elections can take place. This governor, Louis Mouttet, received a report from civil leaders who [had] climbed the volcano to assess the danger. Their conclusion was there is nothing in the activity of Mount Pelée that warrants a departure from Saint-Pierre City. The safety of Saint-Pierre is completely assured, so they thought. And [then] this happened.
Now, this May 8th of 1902, was the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, just a year before, this happened a year before this [volcanic] event, the Bishop of Saint-Pierre, Monsignor Marie-Charles-Alfred de Cormont, had been forced to curtail the procession of the Blessed Sacrament because of the stones and insults hurled at him during the procession. The anti-Catholic persecution took on such proportions that the Bishop had to flee the island of Martinique for some months in order to let the situation calm down.
At his departure on the boat in the harbor, a group of enemies of the cross were still throwing projectiles at him, to which Bishop de Cormont's only response was, 'you throw stones at us, the volcano will return them.' [His words] proved prophetic. This was written and recorded by the eyewitness, Father Pinot.
During the 1902 Carnival, which starts with Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, right before Lent, the festivities took on a sacrilegious character. Many participants dressed up as monks and made a mockery of Christianity. Marenz, in his book titled Funeral Pilgrimage to the Ruins of Saint-Pierre, he recounts, quote:
Quote:An excessively violent and ungodly crowd strives to dechristianize this unhappy city. Narrow-minded and intolerant, those who have assumed the mission of directing public opinion do not cease in regard to everything and anything to spread blasphemy and cast contempt on all that is most respectable and sacred. On March 28, 1902, which was Good Friday, as an inhabitant of the island testified to one of the most famous newspapers in Paris, said this, a group of men had noisily for one of the city's main hotels, they gathered at one of the hotels, where a feast is being prepared. They are the representatives of the of the free thinking, free thought, who to prove their independence of spirit have decided to stuff themselves with the richest meats they can conjure up in opposition to the church's precepts of fasting and abstinence.
Drunk, these diabolical men began to roam the streets of the small capital, uttering obscenities and mocking a crucifix of our Lord. And it is also recorded elsewhere that they crucified a pig on this day as well, Good Friday, out of mockery of Christ, they crucified a pig. They set out on the road that leads to the mountain.
Fourteen times amidst infamous blasphemies, the mob pauses to mock the stations of the cross and the scenes of the passion. They continue their ascent, ever more agitated, inventing new improprieties at each step. At last they reach the peak of Mount Pelée.
They stop before the gaping mouth of the crater of the volcano. And there, in the midst of an infernal Sarabande, this hellish dance, jeering and gesticulating, waving their arms, they hurled the crucifix to the bottom of the abyss. That sacred image of Our Lord who died 19 centuries ago to redeem their ungrateful souls.
On the island of Martinique, they had three Masonic Lodges. It had sixteen refineries for rum, so it was a very luxurious city, very comfortable, very abundant with all good material things. And many Americans used to go down there and visit as well and spend vacations.
The Monday of the Carnival, during the Lent, was 'devoted to devils and witches, all dressed in red, followed by a horde of children and adults dancing and making frightful guttural noises, says another eyewitness.' Sounds like those Superbowl halftime shows now, doesn't it?
And then what happened? Mud began to flow down the valleys. People decided to flee, but the governor said, 'Don't worry, we have elections coming up. I've already sent a crew up there to test it all. Everything is fine. This happens every few billion years because of evolution and you're going to be safe.'
Well, here's what happened. There, within 70 seconds, the volcano erupted with violence and a pyroclastic flow came down, which is just a wall, like an avalanche of lava and hot coals and smoke and ash came down like a huge avalanche of snow and destroyed the city within 70 seconds. It came down at 100 miles an hour, this hot cloud of gas and incandescent solid particles like glowing clouds.
There was a statue of Our Lady weighing five tons, which was five kilometers, that's about just over three miles away from the crater, it was found some 12 meters away from the pedestal, 72 feet it was moved, this five-ton statue of Our Lady.
There was a bell in the city weighing one ton, which was considerably deformed by all the heat afterwards.
There were 400 boats in the radius of the mountain, only one survived.
Of the 100,000 people who inhabited the city, about 40,000 died from burning, asphyxiation and electrocution. And then, after this terrible disaster, only three survived.
One was a prisoner who was in the prison. The prisoner was so well insulated and he just said it just suddenly got really hot and hard to breathe. He didn't know what happened, he felt the earthquake and later rescue teams came and found him alive.
His name was Louis-Auguste_Cyparis, a big tall black man and he was in prison because he killed someone with a sword, a [cutlass]. Afterwards he joined Barnum and Bailey's circus and toured the world, boasting to be the lone survivor of Martinique Island [volcano]. The other survivor was a shoemaker, Léon Compère-Léandre. Léon, and the other one was a little girl, a little girl about five or six years old. Her name was Havivra Da Ifrile - and she was on a little boat and she was in a position where she was not harmed.
So, this whole island was just destroyed under two minutes, just like that. So, so much for their elections, so much for their blasphemies, so much for the insulting God - God is not mocked. God is not mocked and if this is just a little appetizer of what's coming on our world, it won't be pretty.
Sister Lucia of Fatima, she describes the one of the chastisements and she just, she says she sees like a lance pointed down on the earth and a whole raining of fire, whole cities buried under mountains, she says, in one of her visions. So, where have we come to? When blaspheming Christ in the Super Bowl has become the norm, the Olympics was begun with the whole ceremony mocking the Last Supper, mocking the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that was in Paris. The prophecies say Paris will burn and, you know, when we consider our elections this year, there is no pro-life.
So, here we are back to pre-pagan days when sacrificing children has become the norm. When abortion now totally backed by both candidates, President Trump totally backs, now sad to say, the pill, the abortion pill, which makes up 63% of abortions. And so, when they approve that to be bought or sold on the counter, this is just going to skyrocket abortions.
And there's full approval from both sides also for IVF and abortion. The argument, one wants abortion late term and even after, and the other, the Reds want the abortion earlier, but they approve, they approve of this. So, what are Catholics supposed to do? There are numerous priests and articles out there saying, 'well, you know, lesser evil and and the principle of trying to apply the principle of the lesser evil and the other moral principles.'
But for Catholics, you know, you can use moral distinctions and acrobatics all you want. The bottom line is we have become like the nations Jeremiah and Isaiah the prophet thundered against. And Isaiah and Jeremiah say, they quote God saying, 'The Lord God says, because you have sacrificed your children and have played your music at these pagan ceremonies, I will take you like a clay vessel of a potter and smash you against the rocks and you'll be shattered and your names will be no more.'
And is this what we're on the verge of? America being just one of the other pages of history? Yeah, there was once a nation that was started and was discovered by Christopher Columbus and the Masons settled up in the north and they took over. America was baptized Catholic, but it became overtaken by the Masons and they decided we don't want Christ the King. So this nation became very proud and pompous, started spreading wars everywhere in the name of liberty, freedom, and the rights of man.
And they started killing their own children by the millions, building up little hospitals and clinics everywhere. Then they invented pills to kill their own children so they could be more free for their vacations and to pursue their careers. And this nation, they had elections and it came to the point where there was no longer anyone fighting for the little ones, the little ones that Christ said, what you do to the least of these, you do to me.
What you do to the least baby in the mother's womb, you do to Christ himself. And these people became gross and hardened. And where were the Catholic people in those days to stand up and finally draw the line and say, enough, no more.
You don't deserve our elections if you're going to destroy and stand for the constant killing of the children. And even many Catholics voted these people in, says the books of history in the future, many Catholics voted them in trying to do moral theology acrobatics and make distinctions here and lesser evil there and distinctions there and material this, formal that, when it all just came down to slaughtering the innocents. And then this nation under the great chastisement was buried and they, whatever way God is going to punish the West, we know it's going to be, and it will be worse than Saint-Pierre, I'm afraid, much worse, because Saint-Pierre, they weren't doing abortions in that city.
They probably did them in the back alleys, but it wasn't approved by that governor. But now we have approved abortion and either candidate, whoever wins, is just going to fast forward abortions. To Trump's credit, he did reduce it from federal to state level and God may spare states like Oklahoma that has banned abortion.
Texas also is gravely trying to limit abortion, but it's still permitting it at the younger levels. So some states may be spared the chastisement, but where were the Catholics of those days when America was once a powerful nation? Where were those traditional Catholics to stand up and defend the little ones? Where were they when they cast all their elections and ballots in favor of candidates that would continue the bloodshed? That will be the future history books, and then the new books will be written. But America, God spared a few families, God spared a few people who did not want any participation in this wickedness, this wicked and adulterous generation, and out of these, few that survived that chastisement, God used them to rebuild, and priests began to fill seminaries and convents filled with nuns, and the faith spread, and the Pope finally consecrated Russia, and the United States, what used to be, became a Catholic nation.
In the reign of Christ the King was proclaimed, and in the laws was banned forever abortion and sodomite parades, and in their constitution, in their declaration of dependence on Christ the King, they declared Christ is King of this nation, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary reigns with Her Divine Son over our laws, over our people, and that people became strong and prosperous and blessed by God, and out of this era came many saints. Is this the future of what land we're standing on? Well, it can all be averted if we do what Our Lady says, 'Pray Her Rosary, Wear Her scapular, [make] reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and defend the unborn.
That's the last line in the sand for all of us.
We have to draw the line somewhere, and it has to stop with abortion. You cannot compromise on that question. In 2006, in Mexico, the tilma of Our Lady hangs in Mexico City, near Tepeyac, where Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego [as Our Lady of Guadalupe].
In 2006, Mexico passed the abortion law. It was a terrible tragedy for Mexico, but Our Lady protested, Heaven protested, and the tilma miraculously spoke again to the world, as she always does. Because where the baby Jesus is in her womb, for 24 hours, He was visible, shining through the tilma, the baby Jesus, and you can still see photographs of this and footage. And some scoffers tried to say, 'well, it was just reflection of camera glass.' No, it wasn't, because people came and saw it from all angles, and for 24 hours, they could see the baby Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and still today, people can put a stethoscope to the image of the tilma, and they hear two hearts beating miraculously, the heart of Mary slower, and the heart of Jesus pumping faster.
Why did she do this when the abortion was passed? Because Heaven hates this child sacrifice, which we have reverted to as decadent modern nations. So do we ever need Christ the King, and do we ever want to proclaim him Christ, King of our nation? May the Sacred Heart of Jesus come back to reign over our governments, over our constitutions, over our laws. That's the only path to freedom, and true liberty, and true prosperity. So, is God going to let us fall into these hands of these degenerates that will just bring down the more chastisement from heaven? Well, let's do our part.
Stay with Our Lady. Would she vote for a pro-abortion candidate if she was alive in St. Joseph? Do you think they would? And get into all these arguments of material, formal participation, and lesser evil, and this principle and that principle from the 1940s and 50s? I don't think so, and it really is that simple. It really is that simple, but you stand with Our Lady, opposed to this wicked and perverse generation.
Stand with her, and God will protect you, and at least you'll die in peace knowing that you've never cast your ballot to the massacre of children. Happy you, if you could say that. Let's turn to the Virgin Mary.
Let's turn to this Mother of God. Very soon, we're going to be escorting, carrying, and accompanying Jesus Christ the King through the little road here, out in the country. If we were in the city, a parish in the city, we'd walk right down the streets of the main city, but for now, here we are outside.
A little cool, but a beautiful day to honor Christ the King, and let's make reparation to the heart of Jesus. Let's pray. Pray to the Mother of God to spare this nation and our country, and beg Mother of God to grant a Pope to consecrate Russia.
That is the bottom line.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee, and for those who do not have recourse to Thee, especially all communists and Freemasons and other enemies of Holy Mother Church, Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
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| Archbishop Viganò: Brief reflection on “Synod on synodality” |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2024, 09:11 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
- No Replies
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![[Image: miniatura-241028-eng.jpg]](https://exsurgedomine.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/miniatura-241028-eng.jpg)
Brief reflection on “Synod on synodality”
[Slightly adapted.]
The “Synod on Synodality” that has just concluded is a perfect icon of the duplicitous and fraudulent nature of the conciliar and synodal church.
The usual promotion of the globalist agenda is all too evident. The hierarchical subversion of gender equality is at the origin of the surreal discussion about the “ordination” of women, of which a “pastoral experimentation” has already been approved to begin that will serve in the near future as an alibi for the official modification of doctrine on the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
In the same way, the acceptance of LGBTQ+ ideology, which is also a globalist objective, was obsequiously transposed to the Synod after the premise was laid in Fiducia Supplicans.
The deep church acts in total rupture from and in opposition to the ecclesial body, exactly as the deep state governs against the interests of citizens. Regardless of the individual articles of Faith that the Synod tampers with pastorally, it is also evident that the ultimate goal that Bergoglio has set for himself is to destroy the Catholic Church by distorting the nature of the Papacy as Our Lord established it. The church of Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a “synodal church,” therefore it is neither monarchical nor divine, but democratic and human. Its authority is not vicarious of the sacred Power of Christ but rather a false and deceptive expression of a supposed “will of the people,” or even worse it is a “sign of the Spirit” that a subversive organization is hiding behind. Faithful Catholics are being deceived by false shepherds and mercenaries.
Everything in the words and actions of the synodal church is a lie. Because its purpose is to impose by authority, under the guise of a request from the grass roots, things that no faithful Catholic has ever asked for, because they contradict the teaching of Our Lord. This authority, which has been usurped for the opposite purpose to that for which Jesus Christ established it, is completely illegitimate, and it is now the duty of each and every Successor of the Apostles to denounce this synodal farce, the final phase of the conciliar revolution, with which the Bride of the Lamb has been replaced by the Whore of Babylon that is subservient to the New World Order.
There are those who believe that the alarm about Bergoglio’s subversive intentions is excessive and unfounded, citing as an example of his intermittent orthodoxy his latest “encyclical” on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This document represents a diversion to deceive the faithful, according to the well-tested strategy of deception typical of the Jesuit and Peronist Bergoglio, confirming his duplicity and intellectual dishonesty. The argument made in Dilexit Nos – treated in an apparently anti-modern key – constitutes a clumsy attempt at fraudulent reappropriation by the Society of Jesus of the cult of the Sacred Heart, of which it has been the historical custodian. This devotion, which arose to counter the Jansenist heresy, will inevitably be distorted to give the appearance of theological rigor to the opposing heresy, that is, to a form of doctrinal and moral laxity that admits everything as morally permissible because it has supposedly already been healed and forgiven by the infinite Mercy of God. Such false devotion is perfectly consistent with the Synod’s aim.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
October 27, 2024
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Regis
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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Feast of the Christ the King |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2024, 09:01 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Rex Sum Ego
Homily on the Feast of Christ the King
![[Image: miniatura-241027-eng.jpg]](https://exsurgedomine.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/miniatura-241027-eng.jpg)
Dixit itaque ei Pilatus : Ergo rex es tu?
Respondit Jesus: Tu dicis quia rex sum ego.
Ego in hoc natus sum, et ad hoc veni in mundum,
ut testimonium perhibeam veritati:
omnis qui est ex veritate, audit vocem meam.
Jo 18, 37
Your Excellency, dear priests and clergy, dear faithful: praised be Jesus Christ!
By the providential will of Pope Pius XI, this last Sunday of October is dedicated to the Universal Kingship of Our Lord. The encyclical Quas Primas, promulgated on December 11, 1925, illustrates this doctrine and the reasons why, by virtue of the hypostatic Union – that is, the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ – we must recognize our Lord and Sovereign in the Word of God Incarnate.
Last Sunday’s Gospel – the twenty-second after Pentecost – has in some way prepared for today’s feast, inviting us to contemplate the Kingship of Christ also in the precept “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt 22:21). Recognizing Our Lord as the Sovereign both of individuals and of societies is in fact already contained in these simple words: Give to God what is God’s.
I believe that each one of you has been able to rediscover this beautiful truth of our holy Religion; a truth that has been preserved since the dawn of the Church. The institution of this Feast, apparently redundant given that the whole Liturgy is a profession of Faith in the Divine Kingship of Our Lord, shows us how the Roman Pontiffs were able to reaffirm His Universal Lordship precisely at the moment when the errors of secularism, socialism and liberalism (in its two variants: collectivist in Russia and nationalist in Germany) were trying to oust God from public sphere, taking the errors and horrors of the Revolution of 1789 to their extreme but logical consequences. Behind this centuries-old conspiracy against Christ, which began well before we can imagine, we know there is the subversive work of the Synagogue of Satan, of the Masonic anti-church devoted to the establishment of the kingdom of the Antichrist. Protestantism, the Rosicrucians, the Bavarian Illuminati, Freemasonry, and all the sects that have conspired since the sixteenth century against Catholic Europe are expressions of this all-out war against Christ and His Church.
The Popes who reigned between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries condemned with apostolic severity the revolutionary principles in the name of which the monarchies of the Catholic nations were overthrown. These Popes saw clearly what immense ruins would follow their spread throughout the world, and warned the Christian people against accepting any compromise with the secular, liberal, materialist mentality that these errors conveyed.
What the Pontiffs could not foresee – it was so unheard of and scandalous even to be able to hypothesize it, at that time – was that this rebellion against Christ the Lord would not only find support among subsequent popes, with all the instances of Modernism ferried into the bosom of the Catholic Church with Vatican II, but that this rebellion would extend to the whole ecclesial body, to the point of apostasy from the Faith and the emancipation of the vicarious authority of the Roman Pontiff from that possessed exclusively and fully by the Divine Head of the Mystical Body, King and Priest. The post-conciliar popes, architects of innovations in the theorization and exercise of the Papacy, have come to adapt and reinterpret the Papacy in a synodal (ad intra) and ecumenical (ad extra) key, thus demonstrating their willingness to change what Our Lord established in founding His Church.
The apostasy of the Bergoglian church, now openly before everyone’s eyes, is not a phenomenon that started with Bergoglio. Its causes are to be found in the errors deliberately insinuated by the Council and obstinately supported by the popes of the post-conciliar period. The modernist revolution of Vatican II consisted precisely in having welcomed into the Church the anti-Catholic principles – Masonic and liberal – of modern nation-states, despite the fact that it was obvious that immense damage was caused by the Revolution in the space of a few decades, first of all to the eternal salvation of souls and the good government of nations.
But what is the essence of this unconditional surrender to the anti-Catholic ideologies that the Church had uninterruptedly condemned without appeal? Why are concepts such as liberty, fraternity, and equality so opposed to the Gospel and so disastrous in their effects on individuals and societies, on both the State and the Church?
To fully answer this question, we must first of all keep in mind that everything that comes from the Evil One is deception and lies. Satan lies us when he deceives humanity that it can “free” itself from the Lordship of Christ by presenting it to us as an “oppressive yoke.” Satan lies when he deludes us into thinking that he can claim for himself a sovereignty that instead belongs to Our Lord and to Him alone. Satan lies when he deceives men that they can be “brothers,” while simultaneously denying the Divine Fatherhood of God. He lies by presenting uniformity in sin and approval in vice as desirable – because this is his concept of equality – and he lies when he shows us how to avoid the multiplicity and variety of gifts with which the magnificence of God fills each of us in a unique and unrepeatable way.
We are “the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people whom God has acquired for himself to proclaim the marvellous works of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pt 2:9), and it is against this race – which is the seed of the Woman (Gen 3:15) in perpetual enmity with the seed of the Serpent – that Satan is unleashed, in his livid envy of the destiny of glory that he irrevocably rejected with his Non serviam.
Satan knows that Jesus Christ is King. His sole purpose is to induce us to rebel against our Sovereign, to have Him as an enemy, to deny our due and necessary submission to Him, our Redeemer and Lord, in order to subjugate ourselves to the hateful slavery of the Evil One. In short, what Satan wants is to make us deny Christ the King and High Priest and instead acclaim the Antichrist as Our Lord’s blasphemous counterfeit. That is why this fury exists on the part of Satan and his servants in wanting to deny Christ His sovereign rights over the Nations and also over the Church.
Only those who do not believe and do not want Christ to be King can accept the idea that civil authorities should not publicly recognize the true and only Church, of which He is the Divine Founder. Only those who do not believe and do not want Christ to be King can accept syncretistic ecumenism and theorize that “all religions are a path that leads to God.” Only those who do not believe and do not want Christ to be King can arrogate to themselves the sacrilegious right to change His Church and the Papacy established by Him in order to obsequiously obey His enemies.
On the other hand, those who recognize that Our Lord Jesus Christ is God, Lord, King, and High Priest lead everything back to Him, return everything to Him, and consecrate everything to Him.
We cannot profess ourselves as Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman without proclaiming the Kingship of Christ, and without living it out daily, beginning with ourselves, our families, our communities. In fact, how can we hope that the Lord will not abandon us and return to reign over civil societies, if those who compose them do not recognize Him as King? Brought before Pilate by the Sanhedrin, Our Lord finds Himself answering the Roman Procurator who asks Him if He is King: “You say it, I am King. I was born for this, and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the Truth; everyone who comes from the truth hears My voice” (Jn 18:37).
We listen to the voice of Our Lord if we come from the truth, and recognize Him as our King. It will be in this sequela Christi Regis that we will find the reasons for our fight in this hour of history and we will be able to recognize who is lined up under His holy banners and who, scelesta turba – wicked mob – is lined up with the Antichrist. “Qui non est mecum, adversum me est; et qui non colligit mecum, dispergit” (Lk 11:23). He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
The first creature to listen to the voice of Our Lord was Mary Most Holy, Regina Crucis, the mystical Throne of the divine King. Let us remember this well: wherever Christ reigns, His August Mother must also reign; because it is the will of the Son that She be the One who in Her unblemished Virginity humbles the impure spirit, and who in Her Humility crushes the proud head of the Serpent. May she be the Lady and Queen of every Christian and in particular of every priestly soul, so that the Mediatrix of all Graces may intercede before the Throne of the Most High for the Holy Church, for all who faithfully profess the Catholic Faith, and for the destiny of the world. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
27 October 2024
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Regis
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| Kuwait Suspends [Financial] Services to Thousands for Failing to Submit Biometric Data |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-28-2024, 08:55 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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A little foreshadowing perhaps?
Kuwait Suspends Services to Thousands for Failing to Submit Biometric Data
Oct 28, 2024
Kuwait has forced over one million citizens to hand over their biometric data in one of the most extreme pushes for digital ID. Kuwait introduced a national electronic ID (eID) that they say will assist with identification verification, digital signatures, E-government access, and the secure exchange of data. The deadline to file for this mandatory program was September 30 and the consequences for failing to comply were swift.
On October 1, the Ministry of Interior announced that those who failed to submit their data would be prohibited from all electronic services such as withdrawals, transfers, and account transfers. One cannot even withdraw cash. Around 35,000 people have been blocked out of their bank accounts and are unable to even view the balance. A few weeks later, those in noncompliance has their electronic bank cards deactivated. Visa, MasterCard, and K-Net all abided by the government’s rule.
Beginning on November 1, The Kuwait Banking Association stated it will implement a “complete block” on all accounts, which means one cannot even withdraw funds if they go to the bank in person. Expatriates have until December 31 to submit their biometric registration.
The government has reported an uptick of 6,000 new registrants per day compared to 600 since they began blocking citizens from accessing their own bank accounts. The government called this a “phased approach,” believing they’ve offered leniency to the public.
The issue here is that governments globally are strapped for funds and believe that they can increase revenues by at least 35% if they hunt down their citizens for taxes. Then we have the layer of the Great Reset put forth by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum that is aiming to create a One World Government complete with a global database to track absolutely everyone. Australian journalist Maria Zaric has called it a “digital prison.” Once you’re locked in, you’re locked in. People will be less likely to speak out against the government, protest, or refuse vaccinations if they know their government can immediately exile them from society. This is more than a mere identification as it provides the government with instant access to all of your information and they will track your every movement. This is only the beginning of a massive wave of tyranny. [...]
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| Pope Francis closes Synod saying Church needs to ‘get its hands dirty to serve the Lord’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-28-2024, 08:50 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Pope Francis closes Synod saying Church needs to ‘get its hands dirty to serve the Lord’
Closing the Synod, Pope Francis rebuked the Church for being ‘seated in blindness’ and urged the Church to ‘take up the cry of the world’ and be ‘a Church that gets its hands dirty to serve the Lord.’
![[Image: PF-synod-closing-Mass.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/PF-synod-closing-Mass.jpg)
Pope Francis at the Synod closing Mass
Credit: Michael Haynes
Oct 27, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis formally closed the Synod on Synodality with a Mass at the Vatican today, stating that the Church “cannot remain seated” but must be a “standing Church” which “gets its hands dirty to serve the Lord.”
Joined by all the participants of the Synod on Synodality in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis presided from the throne over the Mass which marked the formal closure of the Synod which began in 2021.
READ: Synod final text calls for continued ‘process’ with synodal ‘listening’ and dialogue
His homily was highly anticipated, being seen as the Pope’s last charge to the Synod over which he has presided and which has dominated the Church’s life in recent years. Indeed, the Synod final document states that though the official event is over, the process is only beginning: “The synodal process does not conclude with the end of the current Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, but it also includes the implementation phase.”
Not failing to deliver on such homiletic expectations, Francis issued a condemnation of Church’s practices and proposed a new style, by drawing from the Gospel passage of Christ meeting Bartimaeus, the blind beggar sitting by the road whom Christ healed.
Francis decried a Church that is blind and sitting, saying that “before the questions of today’s women and men, the challenges of our time, the urgencies of evangelization and the many wounds that afflict humanity, sisters and brothers, we cannot remain seated.”
“A sitting Church,” he continued, “which almost without realizing it withdraws from life and confines itself to the margins of reality, is a Church that risks remaining in blindness and settling into its own malaise.”
![[Image: CF3DA3F4-6D1A-4794-A343-44F615EC3AE1_1_105_c.jpeg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CF3DA3F4-6D1A-4794-A343-44F615EC3AE1_1_105_c.jpeg)
Francis at the Synod 2024 closing Mass. Credit: Michael Haynes
Accusing the Church of already being unable to recognize global issues, Francis said that “if we remain seated in our blindness, we will continue to fail to see our pastoral urgencies and the many problems of the world in which we live.”
He attested that the Synod on Synodality calls the Church to “cry out” to Christ like Bartimaeus. This is done, said Francis, by the Church “taking up the cry of all women and men on earth: the cry of those who long to discover the joy of the Gospel and those who have turned away instead; the silent cry of those who are indifferent; the cry of those who suffer, the poor, the marginalized, the child labor slaves enslaved in so many parts of the world to labor; the broken voice, hearing that broken voice of those who no longer even have the strength to cry out to God, because they have no voice or because they have resigned themselves.”
“We do not,” he said, “need a sitting and resigned Church, but we need a Church that takes up the cry of the world and – I want to say this, maybe some people are shocked – a Church that gets its hands dirty to serve the Lord.”
A “synodal Church” is one that follows Christ “along the road” and is a “standing Church.”
Echoing the recurring talking point of the Synod, Francis closed by describing the newly synodal Church as “a community whose primacy is in the gift of the Spirit, who makes us all brothers in Christ and lifts us up to Him.”
The final document of the multi-year Synod was issued on October 26. Francis will not write an Apostolic Exhortation, but instead approved the text, meaning that under his own 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio, once the final document of a synod “is expressly approved by the Roman Pontiff, the Final Document participates in the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter.”
The text contains numerous talking points, and some mandatory elements, for changing the Church’s daily life and governance in line with “synodality.” This word, the text posits as being heavily focussed on “listening” to all – meaning seeking ways to make those the text identifies as “marginalized” feel welcome – and ecumenism.
Opening the Synod in 2021, Francis quoted Vatican II theologian Father Yves Congar and called for “a different Church” courtesy of the Synod. The intimate link between the Synod and Vatican II has been consistently highlighted throughout the process, and the Synod’s final text re-iterates this.
“Rooted in the Tradition of the Church, the entire synodal journey took place in the light of the conciliar magisterium,” the document notes.
The key words from the very beginning, in the earliest documents, have been “listening, dialogue,” whilst those such as “sharing… conversion… being inclusive…journeying together… inter-religious dialogue…” also featured heavily. Given this, the Synod has from the start been described by some Catholic theologians as containing a “fundamental error” due to the listening to non-Catholics about how the Church should live.
Notably, the Synod’s final text echoes the recent words of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández in saying that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open,” despite Catholic teaching infallibly stating that the matter is closed.
READ: Cardinal Fernández says question of female deacons is not closed, citing Pope Francis
It also highlights desires for increased ecumenism, and synodal style of governance at every level of the Church, including for the papacy. Some further limits would be placed on papal power, with the text arguing a pope cannot “ignore a direction which emerges through proper discernment within a consultative process, especially if this is done by participatory bodies.”
Such changes on Church life would be seen also at the local, provincial and national level, as the implementation of various styles of councils “must be made mandatory,” the document states.
This will be done in order to effect “decentralization,” and implement “synodality.”
READ: Synod final text calls for continued ‘process’ with synodal ‘listening’ and dialogue
However such moves, while warmly welcomed by the Synod, are not without criticism. In 2018 Cardinal Raymond Burke remarked that “synodality” has “become like a slogan, meant to suggest some kind of new church which is democratic and in which the authority of the Roman Pontiff is relativized and diminished — if not destroyed.”
He warned that some, “not understanding the notion of a synod correctly[,] could think, for instance, that the Catholic Church has now become some kind of democratic body with some kind of new constitution.”
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| Hymn for the Feast of Christ the King: Habet in vestimento |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-27-2024, 06:39 AM - Forum: Catholic Hymns
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The Feast of Christ the King
NLM | October 27, 2024
He hath on his garment, and on his thigh written: King of kings, and Lord of lords. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. (The antiphon at the Magnificat for 2nd Vespers of Christ the King.)
![[Image: Facundus+Beatus.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNG9-N4G1w4ocdMQo5SVqQcu5MgYHCxzYPm1FOC5Cn560wkZ3-YkblDpzyLVrt0KkaFvIzTqlFWObnuYkVlIPm8P0rCIm5gZNvz3_VWqKjLT3L_ZoJtXL1QdAViS5aPaK8UG0c/w304-h428-rw/Facundus+Beatus.jpg)
The Rider on the White Horse and the Army of Heaven (Apocalypse 19); from an illustrated manuscript of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liebana, made by a scribe called Facundus for King Ferdinand I of Castille and Leon, 1047 AD, now in the National Library of Madrid. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)
Aña Habet in vestimento et in fémore suo scriptum: Rex regum, et Dóminus dominantium.
Ipsi gloria et imperium, in sáecula saeculórum.
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| The Catholic Trumpet: A Call to Acknowledge the Unity of Church and State |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-27-2024, 05:58 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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A Call to Acknowledge the Unity of Church and State
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/Studio-Project-10.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet | October 25, 2024
In the current climate of moral relativism and secular governance, it is imperative for Catholics to recognize the integral relationship between the Church and the State. The teaching of the Magisterium is unequivocal: the authority of the Church must permeate all aspects of public life, including governance.
Divine Authority of Governance
Pope Leo XIII in Immortale Dei clearly articulates this principle, stating:
"The Church has the right to control the civil society and laws, as it is the custodian of the truth which must guide every action of the individual and community."
He further emphasizes:
"For God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything, without exception, must be subject to Him, and must serve him, so that whosoever holds the right to govern holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the sovereign Ruler of all."
This foundational truth underscores that any governance lacking divine endorsement is inherently flawed.
The Role of the Church
The Church is tasked with guiding not only individual souls but also the collective moral direction of nations. As Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas asserts:
"As long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations."
The Church serves as the moral compass of society, guiding civil authority to recognize Christ’s sovereignty.
Consequences of Secularism
Pope Pius XI warns of the dangers of secularism, stating in Divini Redemptoris:
"It is the duty of every Christian to bear witness to the truth of Christ, and this includes the obligation to maintain the rightful relationship between Church and State."
He emphasizes:
"The separation of the Church from the State... will only lead to the moral decay of the community."
This highlights that neglecting Christ’s authority results in societal disarray and spiritual desolation.
Historical Precedent
The history of the Church has been one of upholding its authority against secular encroachments, as Pius XI states:
"In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord."
This historical stance serves as a testament to the Church's unwavering commitment to guiding society.
Indispensability of Public Acknowledgment
Pope Pius XI further articulates the need for public acknowledgment of Christ’s kingship, asserting:
"Nations will be reminded... that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ."
This assertion reinforces that the acknowledgment of Christ’s authority is essential for true peace and order.
Theological and Moral Duty
As stated in Pascendi Dominici Gregis by Pope Pius X:
"The office divinely committed to Us of feeding the Lord's flock has especially this duty assigned to it by Christ, namely, to guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith delivered to the saints."
This underscores the moral obligation of Catholics to ensure that the Church’s authority informs the State.
As Catholics, we are called to uphold the truth that the Church and State must operate under the divine authority of Christ. To be a Catholic means to accept this integral relationship, advocating for a society that recognizes Christ as its rightful King.
We must strive to restore this essential order, promoting a public life informed by the principles of our faith, ensuring that the kingship of Christ is acknowledged in all facets of governance. In the words of Pope Pius XI:
"If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth."
In this light, let us reaffirm our commitment to the teachings of the Magisterium, ensuring that the authority of the Church guides the State towards the common good and eternal salvation.
-The ☩ Trumpet
References
Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.
Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, December 11, 1925.
Pope Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907.
Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, March 19, 1937.
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| 'Legal apostasy of society'—Pope Leo XIII's devastating letter on religious liberty |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-24-2024, 06:59 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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'Legal apostasy of society'—Pope Leo XIII's devastating letter on religious liberty
What would Leo XIII have made of Vatican II’s declaration of religious liberty?
And what would he have made of those who say that it is compatible with his teaching?
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...4x1094.png]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F25c6cd86-c499-40af-9070-0dde4f148c3d_1944x1094.png)
WM Review | Oct 23, 2024
Editors’ Notes
“Christ is King” has become a popular slogan, but it’s not always clear that people understand its meaning, context or implications.
By 1889, the Emperor of Brazil Pedro II was declining. He was weary of his reign and doubted that the Brazilian monarchy would continue after his death.
In June 1889, the Cabinet tried to preserve the Empire by proposing a raft of liberalising reforms—including “liberty of worship” and “liberty of education.” Pope Leo XIII wrote the letter É giunto to Pedro II against these measures, explaining their opposition to the Catholic religion, and the grave dangers which they posed.
In fact, two particular measures were primary ways in which Christ’s kingship was denied throughout the nations of the world—and a primary reason for Pius XI’s establishment of the feast of Christ the King in 1925.
The measures were indeed blocked by the conservative General Chamber, but this was not enough to save the monarchy. In December 1889, a few months later, the First Brazilian Republic was declared, Pedro II was deposed and exiled, and the monarchy was abolished.
It should not be understood that the failure of these proposals is what cause the collapse of the Brazilian monarchy. There were many other factors: for example, the recent abolition of slavery without compensation to slaveholders caused unrest amongst the latter, whilst the hostility caused by the long continuation of slavery itself did not vanish with abolition. There were various restrictions on military officers which also led to dissatisfaction there.
This letter has not, to our knowledge, been translated into English before. This is lamentable as it contains many powerful explanations of the Catholic doctrine of Church-state relations.
For example, Leo XIII tells us that…
“Liberty of worship” and “liberty of education” are deceitful names for ideas that “proclaim the legal apostasy of society from its Divine Author”
These ideas were completely untenable for any Catholic, as well as being irrational in themselves (for the reasons discussed below)
They are detrimental even for the temporal good of society, let alone the eternal good of souls.
Although Leo XIII doesn’t use the term “religious liberty” in this letter, this concept sums up the liberty of worship and of education, and it is used as such by Leo and other popes up to Vatican II.
But what would Leo XIII have made of Vatican II’s declaration of religious liberty?
And what would he have made of those who try to defend it as compatible with his teaching and with Catholic tradition?
To ask such questions is to answer them.
Pope Leo XIII
Letter È Giunto
On liberty of worship and of education in Brazil
To Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
1889. Available in Italian at Vatican.va
Translated with headings and some line breaks added by The WM Review
Your Majesty,
It has come to Our attention that in the programme of the new Brazilian Ministry, there are some projects that touch upon the most vital interests of religion and break the thread of the glorious traditions of your Empire. These would, if brought to completion, have the effect of…
- Disturbing the peace of consciences
- Weakening the religious sentiment among your Catholic populations
- Preparing a future full of dangers for the Catholic Church as well as for civil society.
We refer to the “liberty of worship” and “liberty of teaching,” and the provisions associated which, though not openly stated in the government’s public declaration, leave no doubt as to their nature and quality.
It is not Our intention here to elaborate on all the arguments that stand against the introduction of the aforementioned projects. Speaking to Your Majesty, whose cultured and elevated spirit is well known, it will suffice to mention a few of the principal points.
“Liberty of Worship”
This “liberty of worship,” considered in relation to society, is based on a notion that the State—even in a Catholic nation—is not bound to profess or favour any particular religion; rather, that it should be indifferent to all, treating them as legally equal.
This “liberty” does not concern itself, therefore, with that de facto tolerance which, under certain circumstances, may be granted to dissident cults; rather, it is concerned with granting these cults the same rights that belong to the one true religion—which God established in the world, marking it with clear and distinct signs, so that all could recognise and embrace it.
Such “liberty,” therefore, places on the same level…
- Truth and error
- Faith and heresy
- The Church of Jesus Christ and any other human institution
It establishes a deplorable and disastrous separation between human society and God who is its author; it leads to the sad consequence of the State’s indifference in matters of religion, or—what amounts to the same thing—its atheism.
The state’s duties to God
Yet no one can reasonably deny that civil society, no less than the individual, has duties towards God its Creator, its supreme Legislator, and its most provident Benefactor.
To break all bonds of subjection and respect to the Supreme Being, to refuse to honour His sovereign power and dominion, and to disregard the benefits society receives from Him is something condemned not only by faith, but also by reason and the general sentiment of even the ancient pagans. Even they based their public institutions and civil and military enterprises on the worship of the divinity, from whom they believed their prosperity and greatness were derived.
The harm done by this “liberty of worship”
But it would be superfluous to insist on these reflections. On other occasions, in public documents addressed to the Catholic world, We have demonstrated how erroneous is the doctrine of those who, under the seductive name of “liberty of worship,” proclaim the legal apostasy of society from its Divine Author.
What is of interest here, however, is that such “liberty” is the source of incalculable harm to both governments and peoples. Indeed, while religion commands citizens to obey legitimate authority as a divine ministry—prohibiting all seditious movements that might disturb public peace and order—it is all too evident that the State, by declaring itself indifferent to religion and demonstrating its disregard for it, deprives itself of the most powerful moral force, and separates itself from the true and natural principle from which all respect, loyalty, and love of the people are generated.
Furthermore, by neglecting its most holy duties towards God, the State not only forfeits this most effective means of ensuring the obedience and veneration of its citizens, but also undermines the religious sentiment in which the people find strength, resignation, and comfort to endure the hardships and miseries of life. This sets a pernicious example, made all the worse by the elevated status from which it originates.
Here, it will not be necessary to point out to Your Majesty that, especially in the present age when the need for the salutary influence of religion is felt more than ever, and given the ever-increasing moral and social disorders that are unsettling society, it cannot but be extremely dangerous and harmful to the public good to introduce into a Catholic country a system that can have no other result than to weaken or destroy in the population the only moral restraint capable of keeping them within the bounds of their duties.
Those nations which have embarked on this path of “renewal” have had, or still have, cause to lament…
- The progressive increase of crimes, discord, and revolts,
- The instability of power
- All the moral and material ruins that are accumulating upon them.
Therefore, wise and impartial men, after long experience, have had to acknowledge that a people who lose their religious spirit are a people on the path to decline; and that, consequently, the only means of recalling them to salvation lies in the beneficent action of religion, which…
- Alone effectively ensures respect for laws and constituted authorities
- Alone awakens and stirs within man his conscience, that admirable power which reigns in the depths of the soul, presides over all his actions, approves or condemns them according to the norms of eternal justice, and provides the will with the strength and energy to do good.
"Liberty of teaching"
But no less fraught with dire consequences in the social sphere is the so-called “liberty of teaching.”
Indeed, this grants broad licence to schools to disseminate theories and doctrines of every kind, even those most opposed to both natural and revealed truths.
Under the false pretext of “science”—whose true progress has not only never been hindered by faith, but has always been greatly advanced by it—those fundamental principles on which morality, justice, and religion rest are undermined or openly attacked.
As a result, the educational system deviates from its noble purpose, which is not only to produce knowledgeable individuals for society, but also honest ones—those who, by fulfilling their duties towards others, towards the family, and towards the State, help to secure the general well-being.
Instead of curbing the seeds of passions that breed selfishness, pride, and greed in the hearts of young people, and instead of encouraging the growth of sentiments and virtues that distinguish a good son, a good father, and a good citizen, the system becomes an instrument of corruption, leading the inexperienced youth down the path of doubt, error, and disbelief, and sowing within them the seeds of all pernicious tendencies.
These effects are all the more inevitable because, on the one hand, every monstrosity of opinion is given free rein; while on the other, once the principle of “free teaching” is established, the Church’s freedom and legitimate influence over the education of youth are hindered in countless ways.
Conclusion and appeal to the Emperor’s conscience
These few reflections, we are certain, will suffice to show Your Majesty the grievous evils that could arise from the proposed reforms in a country that has, until now, carefully preserved the precious inheritance of faith, and whose inhabitants remain so faithful to the holy traditions of their forefathers.
We do not wish to examine what other supplementary provisions might be alluded to in the Ministry's programme: the wording in which they are hinted at is vague and general, and could conceal further harmful innovations, among which might be the most pernicious of all (the so-called “civil marriage”) and other similar measures. However, we prefer to believe that the men whom Your Majesty’s sovereign trust has called to share in the responsibility of government will, in their political wisdom, understand how beneficial it is for a people to preserve intact the precious advantages of religious peace.
Above all, we trust that Your Majesty, in Your profound insight and constant attachment to the Catholic religion, of which We recently received a fresh and shining testimony through the wise and generous abolition of slavery within Your Empire, will never allow the foundations of a legislation that serves the true interests of the people and the sovereign authority that governs them to be altered, or an era of religious and social discord and unrest to be opened.
By averting such a disaster from Your Empire, Your Majesty will contribute effectively to its prosperity and will call down upon Yourself, upon Your August Family, and upon the Brazilian nation the blessings of heaven.
With this firm conviction, We wholeheartedly bestow upon Your Majesty and the entire Imperial Family Our Apostolic blessing.
From the Vatican, 19 July 1889.
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| Vatican orders suppression of the Latin Mass at California diocese’s cathedral |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-24-2024, 06:49 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Vatican orders suppression of the Latin Mass at California diocese’s cathedral
The letter directing the cessation of the Latin Mass at the Cathedral of St. Eugene in Santa Rosa, California, was handed down by the Secretary of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
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Cathedral of St. Eugene in Santa Rosa, California
Screenshot
Oct 23, 2024
SANTA ROSA, California (LifeSiteNews [emphasis mine]) — The Vatican suppressed the Traditional Latin Mass at the cathedral in Santa Rosa, California, leaving parishioners to seek a new location for the Mass of the Ages.
Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa confirmed Wednesday to LifeSiteNews that the Vatican directed that the TLM be discontinued at the Cathedral of St. Eugene. According to Bishop Vasa, permission has been granted to relocate the Latin Mass, but details regarding when and where this will take place have yet to be determined.
A source who read the letter directing the cancellation of the cathedral’s TLM told LifeSiteNews that it was signed by Archbishop Vittorio Viola, the Secretary of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. The letter cited St. Ignatius of Antioch and Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, according to the source.
The decision was announced to parishioners on Sunday, October 13, without a definite date for the cathedral’s last TLM. However, parishioner George Zieminski told LifeSiteNews that the Latin Mass is expected to end there within the next two months or so.
“This news was met with great sorrow, but not unexpected,” said Zieminski, who added that there are no similar locations nearby for the Latin Mass. Santa Rosa is located about an hour north of San Francisco.
He noted that the cathedral was “renovated about 10 years ago to make it a much more beautiful place to worship our God,” and asked for prayers for the cathedral parish and Bishop Vasa during this time.
Since Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which said that bishops are not to allow Traditional Latin Masses in “parochial churches,” dozens of Latin Masses have been suppressed across the world, with some relocated and many cancelled altogether.
Liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has implored priests to resist Traditionis Custodes and its accompanying Responsa ad dubia “regardless of threats or penalties,” since obedience to these documents would undermine the very mission of the holy Catholic Church.
‘The traditional Mass belongs to the most intimate part of the common good in the Church. Restricting it, pushing it into ghettos, and ultimately planning its demise can have no legitimacy. This law is not a law of the Church because, as St. Thomas (Aquinas) says, a law against the common good is no valid law,’” he said in a speech during the 2021 Catholic Identity Conference.
He quoted the solemn words of St. Pius V’s bull Quo Primum, which authorized the Traditional Mass in “perpetuity.” Quo Primum states (emphasis added):
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 this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remains always valid and retains its full force … Would anyone, however, presume to commit such an act (i.e., altering Quo Primum), he should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
Kwasniewski pointed out that Quo Primum “is not ‘just a disciplinary document’ that can be readily set aside or contradicted by his successors. It is a document de rebus fidei et morum, concerning matters of faith and morals, and therefore not susceptible to being set aside by a later pontiff.”
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| Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos: Sacred Heart is ‘incarnate synthesis of the Gospel’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-24-2024, 06:45 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos: Sacred Heart is ‘incarnate synthesis of the Gospel’
Pope Francis’ new encyclical, entitled ‘Dilexit Nos,’ calls for a renewed devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, emphasizing the need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus as a counter to the distractions of the modern world.
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Pope Francis delivers a speech at Laeken castel on September 27, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium
Photo by Sébastien Courdji/Getty Images
Oct 24, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has released a new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, highlighting the Church’s wealth of teaching on the devotion, and recommending a renewal of traditional acts of piety and “consolation” to the Sacred Heart, which are born out of a recognition of one’s sins.
Divided into an introduction and five subsequent chapters, Dilexit Nos is “on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.” The encyclical is lengthy at 40 pages and with some 227 footnotes.
In his introductory paragraph, Francis points to the Scriptures to say that “nothing can ever ‘separate us’ from that love,” meaning the love of the Sacred Heart.
His text deals with the heart itself, before moving to the mystery of the Sacred Heart, then how the Church has fostered this devotion through Her teachings. In the final two chapters, Francis points to “personal spiritual experience and communal missionary commitment” in relation to the Sacred Heart.
The text is full of quotations from the Church’s vast wealth of writings on the Sacred Heart, and Francis makes great use of the teachings of the Fathers, saints, and popes. He also makes an earnest recommendation of renewing the practice of devotions such as the First Friday, and Eucharistic adoration.
In comparison to Pius XII’s 1956 encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Haurietis Aquas, which is replete with reference to sin and the wounds it causes the Sacred Heart, Dilexit Nos does not emphasize as much of the impacts of sin until near the end of the encyclical. In the closing chapters, Francis makes extensive commentary on the need to unite oneself to the Sacred and suffering Heart of Christ in order to make reparation and atonement for failings against God.
Similar to his 2023 apostolic exhortation on St. Thérèse, Dilexit Nos immediately strikes the reader as far more theological than much of the Pope’s other writings, and is replete with quotations from the Church’s history rather than from Francis himself, as has been the norm in his previous writings.
Importance of the Heart
While Pius XII’s 1956 encyclical on the Sacred Heart moves straight to a theological discourse, Francis dwells in his first chapter – “The Importance of the Heart” – on an understanding of the heart in itself.
He decried how modern society lives in a “liquid” world of “serial consumers who live from day to day, dominated by the hectic pace and bombarded by technology, lacking in the patience needed to engage in the processes that an interior life by its very nature requires.”
“The failure to make room for the heart, as distinct from our human powers and passions viewed in isolation from one another, has resulted in a stunting of the idea of a personal centre, in which love, in the end, is the one reality that can unify all the others,” Francis wrote.
The heart, he said, “is what sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people.”
Expanding on how the current world is fostering a disconnect between the heart and reality, Francis posited the heart as the way for man to be truly man: “If love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved.”
Living in accordance with proper human dignity requires “the help of God’s love,” wrote Francis, as Christ’s Sacred Heart “is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire.”
The Pontiff also pointed to St. John Henry Newman’s famous motto, “cor ad cor loquitur,” saying that the saint understood that “the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart.”
Quote:This realization led him, the distinguished intellectual, to recognize that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not from his reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive and present.
Drawing from a 1998 Angelus address by Pope John Paul II, Francis closed the chapter noting that that the “Sacred Heart is the unifying principle of all reality, since ‘Christ is the heart of the world, and the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection is the centre of history, which, because of him, is a history of salvation.’”
Actions and words of love
Francis’ second chapter deals more briefly with the manner of Christ’s love for mankind, drawing from Gospel passages to highlight Christ’s compassion.
“The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel,” he wrote. “It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs.”
The divine call to unite oneself with God (Jn 15:4) is a call to the Sacred Heart, commented Francis. It also contains the call to follow Christ to the cross, since “[t]he cross is Jesus’ most eloquent word of love,” said Francis.
He added that understanding Christ’s salvific death is central to building a relationship with God, just as it was for St. Paul: “Christ’s self-offering on the cross became the driving force in Paul’s life, yet it only made sense to him because he knew that something even greater lay behind it: the fact that ‘he loved me.’”
The heart that has loved so greatly
Linking to his remarks in the first chapter on the heart being a symbol of the entire person, Francis wrote that devotion to the Sacred Heart is fostered by the Church as being devotion to “the whole Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, represented by an image that accentuates his heart.”
The heart “speaks to us of the flesh and of earthly realities,” he said, adding how the heart is the “symbol” of God’s love.
Francis drew from the Church Fathers, along with saints who have written through the Church’s history on the Sacred Heart. But he also posited how Christ’s love from the Sacred Heart is “threefold” – being an “infinite divine love,” a human love, and a “sensible love.”
These three loves are “not separate, parallel or disconnected, but together act and find expression in a constant and vital unity,” he added, drawing on themes found in Pius XII’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Haurietis Aquas.
He also expounded on the link between devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Trinity, saying that “Christ does not expect us simply to remain in Him” but points to the Triune God.
The Church being cognizant of the beauty of this devotion has been visible, said Francis, by the constant teaching on the Sacred Heart which has continued to this day. He noted how recent popes have proposed the devotion as a necessary response to the various crises of each successive age as it is “an excessively privileged” means “granted us by the Holy Spirit for encountering the love of Christ.”
“Devotion to Christ’s heart is essential for our Christian life to the extent that it expresses our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love,” wrote Francis. “In this sense, we can once more affirm that the Sacred Heart is a synthesis of the Gospel.”
He recommended the traditional practices such as the First Friday devotions, consecration to the Sacred Heart, and Eucharistic adoration.
Drawing also from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Francis recommended the brief aspiration: “Jesus I trust in you.” “No other words are needed,” he said.
A love that gives itself as a drink
The fourth, and longest chapter, draws from Sacred Scripture once more along with the Church’s wealth of saintly writings on the Sacred Heart, in the theme of the “personal spiritual experience.”
Francis summarizes that the “pierced heart of Christ embodies all God’s declarations of love present in the Scriptures. That love is no mere matter of words; rather, the open side of his Son is a source of life for those whom he loves, the fount that quenches the thirst of his people.”
He quotes from Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Bernard, and Bonaventure, before moving to the testimony of canonized male and female religious.
St. Catherine of Siena, he wrote, describes how “the open heart of Christ enables us to have a lively personal encounter with his boundless love,” while St. Getrude he quoted as recounting that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is one especially for the times of an “aging and lukewarm world.”
The devotional writings and teachings of Saints Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, Margaret Mary Alacoque, Claude de La Colombière, Charles de Foucald, and Thérèse of Lisieux are all further quoted by Francis.
So too are a number of Jesuit saints, along with more recently canonized members of the Church Triumphant such as St. Padre Pio. The Sacred Heart devotion, writes Francis, “reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints, all quite different from each other; in every one of them, the devotion takes on new hues.”
He also made particular reference of the sufferings endured by Christ and the “natural” desire of Catholic faithful to respond with love to the Sacred Heart which suffered so much for mankind:
The heart of the risen Lord preserves the signs of that complete self-surrender, which entailed intense sufferings for our sake. It is natural, then, that the faithful should wish to respond not only to this immense outpouring of love, but also to the suffering that the Lord chose to endure for the sake of that love.
In light of this, Francis recommend a renewed practice of offering “consolation” to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Making one of the very few references to sin in the text, Francis noted that sin is another basis for fostering such acts of reparation to God: “Add the recognition of our own sins, which Jesus took upon his bruised shoulders, and our inadequacy in the face of that timeless love, which is always infinitely greater.”
He further highlighted the “inseparable and mutually enriching aspects” of the mystery of Christ and the Sacred Heart, namely, “union with Christ in his suffering and of the strength, consolation and friendship that we enjoy with him in his risen life.”
The natural desire to console Christ, which begins with our sorrow in contemplating what he endured for us, grows with the honest acknowledgment of our bad habits, compulsions, attachments, weak faith, vain goals and, together with our actual sins, the failure of our hearts to respond to the Lord’s love and his plan for our lives. This experience proves purifying, for love needs the purification of tears that, in the end, leave us more desirous of God and less obsessed with ourselves.
Love for Love
While the fourth chapter focused on the personal relationship with the Sacred Heart, Francis devoted his fifth chapter to a collective style devotion and union with Christ. Drawing once more from Scripture and from the Church’s prior teaching.
Mentioning that the devotion can foster “fraternity,” Francis drew from John Paul II to note that collective reparation to the Sacred Heart is a fitting way to atone for the evils of society: “Amid the devastation wrought by evil, the heart of Christ desires that we cooperate with him in restoring goodness and beauty to our world.”
Such reparation, Francis wrote, is “an extension of the heart of Christ.”
“Good intentions are not enough,” he said. “There has to be an inward desire that finds expression in our outward actions.”
The Pontiff closed by making a plea drawn from the spirituality of St. Thérèse and her desire for a spreading of Christ’s love: “I propose that we develop this means of reparation, which is, in a word, to offer the heart of Christ a new possibility of spreading in this world the flames of his ardent and gracious love.”
He also recalled how acts of charity must be rooted, ultimately, in God and be “nourished by Christ’s own love.”
This love of God and the Sacred Heart is at its heart a communal endeavor, wrote Francis, quoting from the divine command to love each other in the manner of God’s love for man.
He closed the encyclical by moving somewhat abruptly away from the theological language of prior passages, stating that the text highlights the Christian roots of his prior encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti.
“I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that his Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world,” Francis closed.
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| Outlines of New Testament History [1898] |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-23-2024, 09:41 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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OUTLINES OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY
BY REV. FRANCIS E. GIGOT, D.D., Mooney Professor of the Sacred Scriptures in St. Joseph’s Seminary Dunwoodie, New York.
SECOND AND REVISED EDITION
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO. BENZIGER BROTHERS, PRINTERS TO THE PUBLISHERS OF HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE
Nihil Obstat. J. B. HOGAN, S.S., D.D., Censor Deputatus.
Imprimatur. † MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of New York. NEW YORK, July 20, 1898.
1898, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS.
PREFACE
THE present is a companion volume to the “Outlines of Jewish History” published some months ago. It deals with the historical data supplied by the inspired writings of the New Testament, in exactly the same manner as the preceding work did with the various events recorded in the sacred books of the Old Testament. In both volumes the writer has pursued the same purpose and followed the same methods.
Both works have been prepared for the special use of theological students, not, however, without the hope that they may prove serviceable to a much larger number of readers, such as teachers of Bible history in Sunday-schools, colleges, academies, and the like. In neither volume has it been the aim of the writer to supply a substitute for the Bible itself, but rather a help towards a more careful perusal of the inspired record. With this purpose in view, he has set forth such results of modern investigation as may render the sacred narrative more intelligible and attractive. Many of the difficulties which are daily being raised on historical grounds are also touched upon, and the biblical student is supplied with constant references to further sources of information.
Like the historical writings of the New Testament, the present volume contains two distinct, though very closely connected parts. The first part, gathered from the four narratives of our canonical gospels, describes the life and times of Our Lord; the second, based mainly on the book of the Acts, presents a brief sketch of the labors of Peter, Paul, James, and John, the leading apostles of Christ. The first part, under the title of “The Gospel History,” takes up the sacred narrative at the point where it was left in the “Outlines of Jewish History,” and deals with the three-and-thirty years of Our Lord’s mortal life; the second, entitled “The Apostolic History,” narrates the principal events connected with the planting and early spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire down to the year 98 A.D.
As an additional help to the student, two maps—one of Palestine in the Time of Our Lord, the other of the Roman Empire in the Apostolic Times—have been especially prepared, and will be found at the end of the volume, together with a Chronological Table established on the now commonly admitted fact that the birth of Our Lord took place some years before what is called the Christian era.
July 16, 1898.
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| Father of Dead Liberation Theology Has Died |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-23-2024, 08:09 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Father of Dead Liberation Theology Has Died
![[Image: 9uvp8qclqjg8tvdoeu991c161prdgneq3rbjo9u....97&webp=on]](https://seedus3932.gloriatv.net/storage1/9uvp8qclqjg8tvdoeu991c161prdgneq3rbjo9u.webp?secure=vPj5LqppuXkxmg-dPSE7uw&expires=1729863997&webp=on)
gloria.tv | October 22, 2024
Peruvian Dominican Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, 96, considered as the father of the Liberation Theology of a Marxist style, died on October 23 in Lima.
The Dominicans claimed that Gustavo Gutiérrez leaves “a profound legacy in the Church and in the social movements of Latin America”.
For them, Gutierrez was “a reference in contemporary theological reflection, decisively influencing the Second Vatican Council and various pastoral currents”.
The Peruvian Episcopal Conference expressed its condolences highlighting the life of a man who allegedly “dedicated his life to the cause of the Gospel from a preferential option for the poor”.
Also expressing his condolences is the Neo-Cardinal Carlos Castillo, Pachamama-Archbishop of Lima. He was one of the closest disciples of Gutierrez.
Who was Gustavo Gutiérrez?
Gutiérrez Merino was ordained a priest in 1959. He joined the Dominicans only in 1998 to escape the jurisdiction of his bishop.
He was one of the most influential clergymen in Peru in the eighties and nineties. He was a political activist, rarely seen leading the Eucharist and considered by many as the true father of the heretical Liberation Ideology.
In his book Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas, Gutiérrez wrote like a Marxist that 'class struggle is a fact and neutrality in this matter is impossible' and that 'the rich are loved by fighting them'.
He called poverty, chosen by many saints to follow Christ, “a scandalous state, an offence to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God”.
Liberation Theology was a movement that has been the most destructive plague to hit the Church in Latin America, both ideologically and pastorally. For three decades this movement wiped out religious communities, killed vocations and contaminated the pastoral life of the Church, all in the name of the "poor" whom it never served.
During John Paul II's visit to Lima in 1988, Gutiérrez was stopped by volunteers while he tried to gain access to the closing Mass with false credentials, seeking a photo opportunity with John Paul in order to appear to be in communion with the man he had described as a "shitty Pole" (Spanish: polaco de mierda) during Wojtyla's historic first trip to Puebla (Mexico) in 1979.
Curiously, one of the most 'conservative' voices in the current College of Cardinals, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, showed considerable sympathy for Gutiérrez. In 2014, he presented a book with two chapters written by Gutiérrez and a prologue by Francis.
In 2015, a Romanian spy chief in the 1970s told ACI Prensa that “the KGB [the Soviet secret service] created and financed Liberation Theology.”
In 2018, Francis sent a warm congratulation to Gutierrez’s 90th birthday.
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| The Titulus Project |
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Posted by: Scripsi Scripsi - 10-22-2024, 08:57 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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I have an idea.
I'm not sure it's a good idea; but I'll float it.
I'm sharing it here precisely because Fr. Hewko teaches that Catholics cannot vote in this election. I thank him for preaching this truth. I think he may be the lone voice spanning all of Tradition. May God bless him for that.
Many of us will still be heading to the polls to vote in local elections. In my state there are two referenda and some local races where I would like to cast a vote. Thus many of us will have ballots in our hands, and will have to decide what to do about the presidential race. We may not want to leave the ballot blank, lest some criminal fill it in with the name of one of our enemies.
My idea is that we should write in, in Latin: Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum.
This, and not: Christ the King.
Why?
I believe that the presidential and other races carry curses and spells, and that those who participate in them not only commit sin but come under demonic oppression - come under the curses when they consent to be ruled by the demons, via their vote. I believe that the demons actually get authority over people when they cast votes for members of the demon-acracy. This would go a long way to explain the exponential decline of America into moral degradation, over mere decades, no matter which party captures the oval office. It also explains why so many traditional Catholics are still going to vote for Trump, even after God has provided them with ample evidence that Trump is exactly the same as Harris.
Recall just how odious was the Titulus of our Lord to His enemies. They demanded that Pilate erase and rescind it. It cut them to the heart, the same way the words of St. Stephen cut them. They hate it - but more, they are terrified of it - because it is absolute Truth, and a powerful weapon against their malevolent designs.
The Titulus carries massive spiritual power. This utterance, this Title of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the utterance of Almighty God Himself. It will break curses and demonic strangleholds. I believe this with all my heart.
Hence, I suggest this idea to, perhaps, the one and only group in vestigial Christendom that might just agree.
God protect and save us!
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| Vatican renews its secretive deal with China for appointing bishops |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-22-2024, 07:56 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Vatican renews its secretive deal with China for appointing bishops
The highly secretive and controversial Sino-Vatican deal lauded by Pope Francis and Cardinal Pietro Parolin has been renewed for four years. It was launched in 2018 and has been criticized by numerous religious and political figures internationally.
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Flags of Vatican and China painted on cracked wall
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Oct 22, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Holy See has renewed its secretive deal with China, according to a spokesman for the Chinese government today.
During a regular press conference October 22, Beijing spokesman Lin Jian revealed that the Chinese government has renewed its 2018 deal with the Holy See, this time for four years instead of the previous norm of two years.
“The achievement and the implementation of the agreement have been commended from both sides,” Lin stated, referring to the 2018 deal on the appointment of bishops in China.
He added:
Quote:Through friendly consultations, the two sides have decided to extend the agreement for another four years. The two sides will maintain talks with a constructive spirit and continue to advance the improvement of China-Vatican relations.
Emblematic of the deal in recent years, it was China who announced the renewal of the deal some hours before the Vatican gave any comment.
In the customary noon press release, the Holy See stated:
Quote:In light of the consensus reached for an effective application of the Provisional Agreement regarding the Appointment of Bishops, after appropriate consultation and assessment, the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to extend further its validity for four years from the present date.
The Vatican Party remains dedicated to furthering the respectful and constructive dialogue with the Chinese Party, in view of the further development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese people as a whole
The officially secret deal is believed to recognize the state-approved church in China and allows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to appoint bishops. The Pope apparently maintains veto power, although in practice it is the CCP that has control. It also allegedly allows for the removal of legitimate bishops to be replaced by CCP-approved bishops.
In a 2018 letter to Chinese Catholics, Francis described the deal as forming a “new chapter of the Catholic Church in China.” Speaking on the papal plane recently, Francis affirmed his pleasure with how the relationship is proceeding: “Yes, I’m pleased with the dialogues with China. The results are good. Even for the appointment of bishops, things are progressing with good will.”
The Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin confirmed to this correspondent earlier this year that the Holy See aimed to renew the deal. Parolin has served as the Vatican’s secretary of state and chief diplomat since October 2013 and has been in the Holy See’s diplomatic service since 1986. Intimately involved in orchestrating the deal from the beginning, he has emerged as the foremost public defender of the deal alongside the Pope.
Speaking in July 2023, Parolin defended the secretive nature of the deal, stating that “the text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved.” The deal “revolves around the basic principle of consensuality of decisions affecting bishops” and is effected by “trusting in the wisdom and goodwill of all,” said Parolin last summer.
Various Vatican sources also confided to certain members of the Vatican press corps that relations between Beijing and the Vatican have apparently “made progress” of late. This, the officials said, was largely due to the current bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J., who has highlighted a spirit of “dialogue” between the two parties.
However, so marked have been Chow’s signs of appeasement to Beijing that a report warned that his Diocese of Hong Kong was actively working with the CCP to effect “sinicization” – the process of CCP state-assimilation and control.
Numerous China experts have also criticized the Vatican for the deal, and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned in 2020 that “(t)he Vatican endangers its moral authority, should it renew the deal.” He linked to an article he penned on the subject in which he stated that “it’s clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party’s depredations.”
The highly secretive deal has been styled by Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, as an “incredible betrayal,” with the much-loved cardinal further accusing the Vatican of “selling out” Chinese Catholics.
While Parolin has defended the deal as a necessary means of “dialogue” with the Communist authorities, the deal has led to a heightened increase in religious persecution since it was signed. The ink had barely dried on the deal in 2018 before AsiaNews, a website that regularly documents the abduction and torture of underground Catholics, reported that “(u)nderground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them.”
Such persecution the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China described as a direct consequence of the deal. In its 2020 report, the commission wrote that the persecution witnessed is “of an intensity not seen since the Cultural Revolution.”
READ: Pope Francis said Chinese Catholics will ‘suffer’ under his deal. They are
The commission’s latest 2023 report released this May – covering the period from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023 – highlighted a similar situation:
Quote:The Chinese Communist Party and government have continued their efforts to assert control over Catholic leadership, community life, and religious practice, installing two bishops in contravention of the 2018 Sino-Vatican agreement and accelerating the integration of the church in Hong Kong with the PRC-based, state-sponsored Catholic Patriotic Association and its Party-directed ideology.
“During the Commission’s 2023 reporting year, officials exerted pressure on both registered and unregistered Catholic communities, taking coercive action against churches and detaining members of the clergy,” the report reads.
It gave evidence of priests arrested by the Chinese authorities and subjected to “a program of political indoctrination, after which several consented to join the official church, while authorities have kept those who did not consent under surveillance and prevented them from exercising their pastoral ministry roles.”
“All bishops who refuse to join the Catholic Patriotic Association are being placed under house arrest, or disappeared, by the CCP,” China expert Steven Moser told LifeSiteNews earlier this year. “Although the Vatican said several years ago that the Sino-Vatican agreement does not require anyone to join this schismatic organization, refusal to do so results in persecution and punishment. And the Vatican stands by and does nothing.”
Only days ago, one of the two CCP bishops present at the Synod on Synodality lauded the Sino-Vatican deal on the synod floor.
Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang added that in China “we effectively adapt to society, serve it, adhere to the direction of the sinicization of Catholicism, and preach the Good News.”
It remains to be seen now whether the Vatican considers that the deal – renewed for four years at the start of its sixth year of existence – is still to be kept confidential, or whether in fact it has been officially approved by either party.
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| A Call to Catholic Resistance Against the Infanticide Genocide |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-22-2024, 06:50 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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A Call to Catholic Resistance Against the Infanticide Genocide
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THE ☩ TRUMPET | October 21, 2024
In the face of the greatest atrocity of our time—abortion, or as we must rightly call it, infanticide genocide—faithful Catholics are confronted with a grave moral crisis. Is it really Catholic to think we can vote this atrocity away? The examples set by the great saints and martyrs of the Church, such as St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher, the valiant Cristeros, and the brave Vendeans, compel us to take a stand that transcends the ineffective and hollow promises of "democracy." These holy warriors did not sit idly by while the innocent were slaughtered. They fought back with unyielding conviction, and we must ask ourselves: how are we responding to the grave injustice before us?
St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher faced death rather than betray the truth of their faith in a tyrannical regime that sought to impose its will over the sanctity of life. They refused to accept the heretical dictates of King Henry VIII, willingly embracing martyrdom rather than compromise their convictions. The Cristeros rose in armed resistance against a government hell-bent on eradicating the Catholic faith. These valiant souls did not flinch in the face of tyranny; they took up arms, willing to lay down their lives for the sacredness of life and the integrity of their faith. The brave Vendeans stood against the violent tide of the French Revolution, which sought to obliterate the Catholic Church and its teachings. They knew that their fight was not just for their lives but for the very soul of their society. Their unwavering conviction and radical action teach us that mere participation in the frameworks of "democracy" will not bring an end to this genocide; passive acceptance of tyranny is not an option.
Our Lady has provided us with the Scapular and the Rosary for our times—not a ballot box. In a world so engulfed in moral decay, we must confront the agents of infanticide genocide with the same fervor and determination that our saints displayed. We cannot be passive observers in this crisis; we must become active participants in the fight for life. This means embracing our convictions with a fervor that leaves no room for compromise. Let us not rest until we have confronted the agents of this infanticide and demanded justice for the unborn. This is not a time for polite petitions or lobbying; this is a time for decisive action.
Should we vote for candidates who promise incremental changes, hoping they will appoint pro-life advocates if elected? Should we wait for another "term" in the election, placing our hopes in gradualism? Should we continue to participate in a democracy that permits the slaughter of the innocent? Or will we refuse to engage with a system that fails to protect life and instead advocate for the social kingship of Christ? We must remain resolute until the killings stop or until the Church once again becomes the guiding authority of the state. We cannot afford to yield; we must stand firm in our convictions and fight until the culture of death is vanquished.
-The ☩ Trumpet
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