Rat Poison in the Church

Don't forget to read the recent speech by Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, NB.

....we should however, realize that the Catholic Church in the United States, and to a large extent throughout the Western World, is facing a very formidable series of crises.

....it is an aphorism that probably can be statistically verified that the largest religious group in the United States is the Catholic Church, but the second largest is fallen-away Catholics, lapsed, non-practicing, those who have abandoned the Catholic faith.

Unless there is a strong realization among practicing Catholics that there is a crisis, and that this crisis deserves our resolute determination to confront it and overcome it, we will not get very far, except to descend further into the bleakness of this sad kind of winter. Unless the patient realizes he is sick, he will not expose his wounds to the necessary healing medicine that would provide a cure for his problems.

Even the healthiest fish cannot swim along in polluted waters.

In Nebraska, where I come from, at this time of the year, harvest time, there are a lot of rodents who try to intrude themselves in, feasting on the corn, soybeans, and other products of the fields. This requires the farmers to put out appropriate amounts of rat poison to prevent this from happening. The rat poison that is put out is always 95% healthy, good, wholesome, nourishing food. It is only the 5% in the poison that does the killing. I think that this has been overlooked in the ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues sometimes, that inserted into things which might have elements of truth, are also very serious elements of error that place in jeopardy one's eternal salvation.

The clash of culture represented by the Muslim demography and onslaught in our time, which reflects the Islamic expansionism of times past, cannot be successfully confronted by an easy-going pluralistic tolerance. It can only be confronted by a reinvigorated Christianity, a reinvigorated Catholic faith.

Vocation to the Cloistered Life

Discalced Carmelites
CARMEL OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH
Valparaiso, Nebraska

A young woman from Kansas City was recently clothed with the garments of the cloister. In her investiture of early November, 2006, Lindsay Jennings assumed the religious name of Sr. Mary Pia of the Cross.

The Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Valparaiso, Nebraska was dedicated on December 14th, 2001, the Feast of St. John of the Cross, and the Papal Enclosure was set by Bishop Bruskewitz. Over 25 priests were in attendance. Perhaps just as important, over 4,000 visitors attended the open house following the dedication.

One of the very interesting stories that happened at that time is told at the website of the Las Vegas Marian Center.

The Lincoln Journal-Star had published a really nice article about the dedication and more specifically about the high altar. They published two photos of the altar. One from the dedication and one as it was, back in the hospital chapel. Saturday morning a gentleman from Minnesota was traveling through Nebraska and had stopped to eat breakfast. While reading the paper he saw the article and could not believe his eyes! There on the page was the altar that he had disassembled over 30 years ago.

He immediately went to the monastery and when he walked in to the chapel he could not hold back the emotion. He sobbed uncontrollably. He never thought he would ever see the altar again. He was the man that was hired to disassemble it and for years it bothered him that he had been the one to take apart something so beautiful and it would never be seen again. Once again he was standing before it in all its glory. We had never seen a man so happy. He stayed and talked with the Sisters for over an hour. Just one more example of the countless graces and blessings being poured out on people as a result of the Sisters' prayers.

Photos of the investiture ceremony of Sr. Mary Pia of the Cross are courtesy of a friend who attended this important event. Other photos are here.

Kansas City Catholic Bloggers

Kansas City has a good stable of Catholic writers, most of which seem to be traditional Catholics of a younger age (with the exception of old man Jovan and me!) If you haven't visited their web sites, this might be the time.

Dr. Bombay is a student at a public university and has blogged since early 2006. The Dr. is a Senior Member of the Catholic Answers Forum and has almost 1,500 posts to his credit. His blog, Confraternity of Uber Catholics, often blows hurricane winds at modernist cows, who if they were standing at the beginning of his post, are laying down dead or laughing hilariously at the end. [Can modernists really laugh at themselves????]

Christopher Rossman started his blog in 2005 and will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas next Spring. His homilies are posted at An Instrument of God, but some of the early ones seemed a little light. He is currently writing a piece on the Sacrifice of the Mass that is beginning to sound very good. Finally, Christopher has done a superb job of explaining and motivating readers to pro-life efforts--especially regarding Missouri Amendment 2 that would allow human cloning.

Wolftracker began his blog, Kansas City Catholic, in Spring 2006 and quickly attracted a large audience. If you want to know what is going on in the Catholic church in this area, read his blog. Wolftracker seems to have an eye for good Catholic news. I always ask myself if he is an insomniac to produce so many good posts. He also posts to the Bishop Finn Fan Club.

KCPriest at Sacerdos in Aeternum initiated several very good discussions on his blog, but he hasn't posted anything since August. I hope he returns, because when he writes a post that asks a question, he can generate over 60 interesting comments in response.

Jovan at The New Crusade is a one-issue guy who has projected the Church's main enemy for the next 100 years--Islam. Give the guy credit for great long distance vision! I love the little pig in Crusade armor that accompanies Jovan to battle. Don't forget to give him a look.

Stephen of True Restoration is another busy and very prolific Catholic blogger with attachments to Kansas City. Stephen's excellent blog occupies the very important right flank of the army opposing Modernism. He recently organized a new Yahoo group that features a daily "one minute devotional" from a book of prayer or spirituality or an encyclical.

Curmudgeon has returned to his Cave, and I'm afraid it is a permanent loss. If anyone wanted to know what church was which and its history in the Kansas City area, you went to his blog. If you wanted to get a raspy opinion of what's wrong with the Church, Curmudgeon would clarify it for you. Curmudgeon never bit his own tongue to keep silent; rather he was that rarity of the news--a heretic biter. He constantly nipped at the heels of heretics in the Church--especially those who proclaimed loudly their loyalty but betrayed it with their actions.

Chad is a new (2006) Catholic who posts at Chad is Not Enough. He also contributes to a group blog at Per Christum. Chad first informed his readers last January that he was investigating Catholicism. Read his opening post on Figuring out the Church. The writer who had the most impact on Chad is Thomas Howard, author of Evangelical is Not Enough. I like his sidebar picture, "I Love Bishop Bruskewicz."

Mr. R. M. A. J. Romero is a 23-year old Catholic blogger who has posted at Caritas Christi Vrget Nos since January 2006. He loves God, Mary, the Church, and the poor. See Ave Maris Stella where he tells a little about himself and the Blessed Virgin Mary. I think I'm going to like him!

Then there are the great Kansas City voices who read and comment on Kansas City Catholic blogs. These include Alison, dotte, Cranky, .... Who am I missing?

Prayer for the Defeat of Modernism

With a slight change, the old prayer for the defeat of Communism seems very good for the defeat of Modernism and all the other enemies of God. May I please ask readers to say it today.

Eternal Father, I offer thee the Cross of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and all the instruments of His Holy Passion, that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thy enemies; for as Thy Beloved Son hath said, "A kingdom divided against itself shall fall."

Vatican II - A Great Moral Flaw?

I've just finished reading an extraordinary article in the October 15, 2006 issue of The Remnant Newspaper. Raymond B. Marcin, Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, proposes a radical thesis. He argues that a great moral flaw in Vatican II contains within it "an implication that the participants in the Second Vatican Council could not have been cooperating with the oversight of God the Holy Spirit."

Can a Council of the Church be defective? Professor Marcin quotes Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI):

...[n]ot every valid council in the history of the church has been a fruitful one; in the last analysis many of them have been just a waste of time.

...the last word about the historical value of Vatican Council II has yet to be spoken.

Archbishop Chaput of Denver made similar comments in December 2005:

While all true ecumenical councils are important in the life of the Church, some failed to achieve their goals. The Council of Florence failed in the 15th century because the Western Church was badly divided and the Greek Church could not accept a union. The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) failed in the 16th century because it focused on the wrong issues. It did too little too late to change the conditions that led to the Protestant Reformation.

Professor Marcin goes further and points out that all of the Bishops who participated in Vatican II adopted measures inconsistent with the Oath Against Modernism--which they had all subscribed to when they were ordained. This solemn oath was supported by many prior Papal documents, and was not rescinded by the Vatican until 1967, two years after Vatican II concluded.

Professor Marcin identifies remarks of Cardinal Ratzinger, where he explains documents of Vatican II were a revision of earlier Papal documents.

If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [of Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty and world religions), it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of countersyllabus.

Professor Marcin notes that Cardinal Ratzinger suggested that Vatican II documents "were intended to 'correct' what he called the the one-sidedness of the anti-modernist position adopted by the Church under Pope blessed Pius IX and Pope Saint Pius X, the Popes whose Syllabi of Errors and Encyclicals warned agains the dangers of Modernism."

The article by Professor Marcin should be read by every serious student of Vatican II.

Looking for Signs and Apologies

For years I've believed one of the first signs that the Church will begin to recover from its surrender to Modernism is when Bishops remove references to Vatican II from the first paragraph of every document they issue. Indeed, it seems there are far fewer references to Vatican II in Bishops' current statements.

The second sign will be a Papal apology to Catholics. This apology should be easy, because recent Popes have already apologized for the schism with the Orthodox, the 'excesses' of the Crusades and the Inquisition, and treatment of the Jews and Galileo. John Paul II in 2000 finally issued an overall apology to everyone who felt aggrieved by past church actions over the past 2000 years.

The new apology from the Pope should be to Catholic parents who now cry daily because of their children's loss of faith. These children are now agnostics, pagans, secularists, and Protestants. I hope the apology comes before the parents die and specifically notes the bad catechetical instruction received by most Catholic children since the last 1960s.

Alas, Curmudgeon, Farewell...

Curmudgeon's departure from active blogging is much regretted. He was usually the first Catholic blog I checked when I logged on. Curmudgeon was the one who bravely charged into the line of fire and often caused readers either heartburn or reevaluation of why they believed as they do. You knew his posts would not waste your time and would be informative and worthwhile to read. He was zealous, irritating, informative, irritating, truthful, irritating, passionate, irritating, Catholic-to-the core, irritating, etc....

Alas, poor Curmudgeon! I knew him well, fellow bloggers: a fellow of infinite irascibility, of most excellent observations: he hath striped us on our souls a thousand times; and.... Where be your gibes now? your wit? your irony? your flashes of passion that were wont to set your readers on a roar? Alas, poor Curmudgeon, farewell...

Kansas City Bishops and Newspapers

Bishop Finn of KCMO has performed as a true leader of the Church in mobilizing Catholics to oppose the Stem Cell Initiative on the Missouri ballot innext Tuesday's vote. I'm hoping that a strong "no" vote on the initiative also will allow Senator Jim Talent to retain his seat.

The Catholic Key focuses on the Stem Cell Initiative, too, and notes the attacks against the Catholic church for opposing embryonic stem cell research. It's good we are being condemned for being Catholics in action. Does anyone remember that Jesus was also condemned?

Archbishop Naumann of KCKS was on KCNW 1380 AM -- Catholic Family Radio -- yesterday discussing the anti-life record of KS Governor Kathleen Sibelius. Now that's another brave Catholic bishop that our area hasn't seen the likes of for a very long time!

The Leaven is definitely improving. This week's edition contains a great story on pornography called The Perfect Storm. Moreover, Archbishop Naumann's column again addresses a great concern of mine--cohabiting couples without marriage. He advises them gently, but firmly, on what is wrong with this common modern practice. Wonderful!

Babies are a Blessing

When the youngest of our children was born, my husband remarked the new baby was such a great blessing. I responded that, indeed, he was a beautiful and good baby. My husband quickly said that this was not what he meant. What he meant was that the new baby was encouraging the older children to take on more responsibility and to love more. The blessing of the new baby was that he improved the personalities and characters of the older children!

Translating News in Italian

I've been watching Rorate Coeli because they seem to have the best information on what is going on in Rome, especially with regard to the liberalization of the old Latin Mass by Pope Benedict XVI. Obviously someone knows how to read and understand the Italian newspapers, such as Il Giornale that keep current on Vatican politics and happenings, including appointments and possible policy decisions.

Translating news in Italian can be done by anyone using the Babel Fish Translator and inserting a web page to translate from Italian to English (or any primary language to another). The translation is very bad, but you can derive most of the meaning.

For example, take the Il Giornale news mentioned by Rorate Coeli. A good translation (provided by Rorate Coeli) is:

In the past few weeks, several French bishops have sent to Rome their lamentations of protest against the "Motu proprio" which would liberalize the pre-Conciliar Mass, but, as it seems, Benedict XVI is decided to move forward, even if with due caution, to heal the mini-schism of archbishop Lefebvre and to assure to the Traditionalist faithful, with an act of liberality, the use of the old missal.

The corresponding translation by Babel Fish is:

In last weeks many French bishops have made to arrive to Rome theirs lamentele in order to protest just against the "Motu" that he would have to liberalize the putting to preconciliate, but to how much he seems, Benedict XVI is decided to also go ahead, with the due cautions, in order to heal the miniscisma of monsignor Lefebvre and to guarantee, with an action of liberalità , to the tradizionalisti faithfuls the use of the old putting them.

Not a very good translation, but you can get the meaning. Of course it is always nice to have a direct translation to English, such as is provided by La Chiesa Online, one of the news sites recommended on my sidebar.