Right wing ‘generally not happy’ with Francis

At National un-Catholic Reporter, there is an article titled “Right wing ‘generally not happy’ with Francis, Chaput says”. Some excerpts:

Chaput acknowledged that members of the right wing of the Catholic church “generally have not been really happy” with some aspects of Francis’ early months and said the pope will have to find a way “to care for them, too.”

Q. How do you explain the enthusiasm beyond the usual suspects [practicing Catholics]?

A. I don’t know how to interpret it, quite honestly. I think part of it is genuine appreciation for the pope’s extraordinary friendliness and transparency. But also, I think they would prefer a church that wouldn’t have strict norms and ideas about the moral life and about doctrine, and they somehow interpret the pope’s openness and friendliness as being less concerned about those things. [Yes, that is exactly why the world loves Francis, the Super Pope]. I certainly don’t think that’s true. I think he’s a truly Catholic man in every sense of the word, but I think people are hoping that he’ll be less concerned about the issues that separate us today.

 

Get Rid of Your TV Set

Read why at the Traditional Catholic Priest blog.

7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Too Pleased About Pope Francis on the Cover of Rolling Stone

At National Catholic Register is an article titled “7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Too Pleased About Pope Francis on the Cover of Rolling Stone.”

It’s best to read it all there, with the pictures.

“Saint Peter And His Successor”: A Louie Verrecchio Video.

Mundabor's Blog

The video above comes from the excellent blog of Louie Verrecchio. Once again, Mr Verrecchio says it better than I ever could, so I thought I would not deprive my readers of this pearl. If the video does not work on your screen, the link will lead you directly to it.

The video is short, and I really suggest to watch it to the end.

I allow myself to only add a little detail: shortly after the 1:00 mark, Francis addresses a greeting to “the Muslims of the entire world, our brothers”. Then, he stops and openly encourages an applause or cheer, which is denied to him in the most evident manner. If dozen of thousand of Italians had cheered, the noise would have been deafening. As it is, he gets the faintest of courtesy claps, possibly from the clergy present.  

It’s good to see not everyone is…

View original post 13 more words

AWAKEN THE WORLD WITH PROPHETIC WITNESS THAT RECALLS THE WITNESS OF YOUR FOUNDERS

PRESENTATION OF YEAR FOR CONSECRATED LIFE: AWAKEN THE WORLD WITH PROPHETIC WITNESS THAT RECALLS THE WITNESS OF YOUR FOUNDERS

Vatican City, 31 January 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Press Office of the Holy See, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, O.F.M., secretary of the same congregation, presented the Year for Consecrated Life 2015. It was called for by Pope Francis at the end of his meeting with 120 superior generals of male institutes, at the suggestion of the heads of the aforementioned congregation on having heard from many of the consecrated.

“First of all,” Cardinal Braz de Aviz said, “this Year dedicated to consecrated life has been prepared in the context of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and, more specifically, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of the conciliar decree on the renewal of consecrated life ‘Perfectae caritatis’. … Because we recognize these 50 years that separate us from the Council as a moment of grace for consecrated life, as marked by the presence of the Spirit that leads us to live even our weaknesses and infidelities as an experience of God’s mercy and love, we want this Year to be an occasion for ‘gratefully remembering’ this recent past. This is the first objective of the Year for Consecrated Life.”

“With a positive look at this time of grace between the Council and today, we want the second objective to be ’embracing the future with hope’. We are well aware that the present moment is ‘difficult and delicate’ … and that the crisis facing society and the Church herself fully touches upon the consecrated life. But we want to take this crisis not as an antechamber of death but as … an opportunity to grow in depth, and thus in hope, motivated by the certainty that the consecrated life will never disappear from the Church because ‘it was desired by Jesus himself as an irremovable part of his Church’.”

“This hope,” he concluded, “doesn’t spare us—and the consecrated are well aware of this—from ‘living the present passionately’, and this is the third objective for the Year. … It will be an important moment for ‘evangelizing’ our vocation and for bearing witness to the beauty of the ‘sequela Christi’ in the many ways in which our lives are expressed. The consecrated take up the witness that has been left them by their respective founders and foundresses. … They want to ‘awaken the world’ with their prophetic witness, particularly with their presence at the existential margins of poverty and thought, as Pope Francis asked their superior generals.”

For his part, Archbishop Rodriguez Carballo explained the initiatives and events that will take place during the Year for Consecrated Life, which will begin this October to coincide with the anniversary of the promulgation of the conciliar constitution “Lumen Gentium”.

The Year’s official inauguration is planned with a solemn celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica, possibly presided by the Holy Father, which could take place on 21 November, the World Day ‘Pro orantibus’. Still this November, it would be followed by a plenary assembly of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the theme of which would be “The ‘Novum’ in Consecrated Life beginning from Vatican II”.

Various international events are also planned for Rome, among which would include a meeting of young religious and novices, those who have professed temporary or final vows for less than ten years, a meeting for spiritual directors, an international theological conference on consecrated life dedicated to “Renewal of the Consecrated Life in Light of the Council and Perspectives for the Future”, and an international exhibit on “Consecrated Life: The Gospel in Human History”.

For the conclusion of the Year for Consecrated Life another concelebration presided by Pope Francis is planned, probably for 21 November 2015, 50 years after the decree “Perfecta caritatis”. Every four months throughout the year, the dicastery will publish a newsletter on themes related to consecrated life, the first of which will come out on 2 February of next year, entitled “Be Glad” and dedicated to the Magisterium of the Holy Father on consecrated life. In response to the Pope’s wishes, the Antonianum Pontifical University in Rome will host a symposium on the management of economic goods and capital by religious from 8 to 9 March. There will be a series of initiatives planned particularly for contemplative religious, including a world Chain of Prayer among monasteries.

Archbishop Rodriguez Carballo also spoke of several documents that the dicastery is preparing. To that end, in close collaboration with the Congregation for Bishops and following a mandate by the Holy Father, the document “Mutuae relationes” on the relations between bishops and religious in the Church is being drawn up. Also, always on the mandate of the Pope, the instruction “Verbi Sponsa”, which deals with the autonomy and cloistering of entirely contemplative religious, is being revised. Another document in preparation will deal with the life and the mission of religious while a fourth one will touch on the question of how consecrated manage goods in order to offer some guidelines and direction in the complex situations that arise in that area.

Finally, during the Year of Consecrated Life, it is hoped that the Holy Father will promulgate a new apostolic constitution on contemplative life in place of “Sponsa Christi”, which was promulgated by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT IS NOT PHILANTHROPY

TO AUSTRIAN BISHOPS: CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT IS NOT PHILANTHROPY

Vatican City, 31 January 2014 (VIS) – Yesterday, Pope Francis received prelates of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference at the end of their “ad limina” visit, delivering the speech that the extracts below are taken from. In his speech the Holy Father recalled the kindness of the Austrian Church for the Successor of Peter that was concretely expressed in the cordial reception given to Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to the Shrine of Mariazell in 2007, despite the difficult years for the Church in following years, a difficulty marked, among other factors, by the decline in the number of Catholics. He writes, however, that this trend “should not find us inactive, but should encourage our efforts for the new evangelization that is always needed.”

Pope Francis affirmed that being the Church “doesn’t mean administration, but going out, being missionaries, bringing people the light of faith and the joy of the Gospel. Let us not forget that the momentum of our commitment as Christians in the world is not a philanthropic idea, not a vague humanism, but a gift from God, that is, the gift of being sons and daughters that we have received in Baptism. This gift is, at the same time, a task. God’s children do not hide; rather they bring their joy as children of God to the world.”

“The Church,” the Pope continued, quoting the Second Vatican Council, “’embraces in its bosom sinners’. But the council says in the same passage that we should not resign ourselves to sin, that is … the holy Church is always in need of being purified. That means that we must always be committed to our purification, in the sacrament of Reconciliation. … As pastors of the Church we want to assist the faithful with tenderness and understanding in this wonderful sacrament, to make them feel the Good Shepherd’s love precisely in this gift. I ask you, therefore, not to tire of inviting people to encounter Christ in the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.”

“An important area of our work as shepherds,” the Pope noted, “is the family. It is located at the heart of the evangelizing Church. … The foundation upon which you can develop harmonious family life is mainly marital fidelity. Unfortunately, in our times we see that the family and marriage, in countries in the Western world, have suffered an profound interior crisis. … Globalization and post-modern individualism promote a lifestyle that makes the development and stability of interpersonal relationships much more difficult and that is not conducive to promoting a culture of the family. Here a new missionary area is opened to the Church, for example, in family groups that create space for relationships between persons and with God where true communion, which welcomes each equally without confining them in elite groups, can grow.”

“The Church’s concern for the family begins with good preparation and proper accompaniment of the bride and groom, as well as a faithful and clear presentation of Church doctrine on marriage and the family. As a sacrament, Marriage is a gift from God and, at the same time, a commitment.”

From the family, the Pope moved on to the parish, “the large field that the Lord has entrusted to us to make fruitful with our pastoral work. Priests, pastors should always be aware that their task of governing is a deeply spiritual service. It is always the pastor who leads the parish community, relying on the help and valuable contribution of the various co-workers and of all the faithful laity. … Each is called; each is sent out. It is not a given, however, that the place of the call be just the parish centre … God’s call can reach us … in the places of our everyday lives.”

“Speaking about God,” he concluded, “bringing people the message of God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ, [a message] for all people, is the duty of every baptized person. This duty includes not only speaking with words, but with our whole way of acting and doing. … It is precisely in our time, when we seem to become the ‘little flock’, that we car called, as disciples of the Lord, to live as a community that is ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world’.”

Two Mighty Columns of Great Height

(I saw) an innumerable fleet of ships in battle array…

As escorts to that majestic fully equipped ship (the Church), there are many smaller ships, which receive commands by signal from it and carry out movements to defend themselves from the opposing fleet.

In the midst of the immense expanse of sea, two mighty columns of great height arise a little distance the one from the other. On the top of one, there is the statue of the Immaculate Virgin, from whose feet hangs a large placard with this inscription: Auxilium Christianorum – ‘Help of Christians’; on the other, which is much higher and bigger, stands a Host of great size proportionate to the column and beneath is another placard with the words: Salus Credentium –‘Salvation of the Faithful.’

(…) The new Pope [Peter the Roman], putting the enemy to rout and overcoming every obstacle, guides the ship right up to the two columns and comes to rest between them; he makes it fast with a light chain that hangs from the bow to an anchor of the column on which stands the Host; and with another light chain which hangs from the stern, he fastens it at the opposite end to another anchor hanging from the column on which stands the Immaculate Virgin.

Then a great convulsion takes place. All the ships that until then had fought against the Pope’s ship are scattered; they flee away, collide and break to pieces one against another.

St. John Bosco’s Prophetic Dream (May 30, 1862)

My Immaculate Heart is the Hospice of the Remnant Faithful

January 3, 2014

Blessed Mother says: “Praise be to Jesus.” 

“My Immaculate Heart is the Hospice of the Remnant Faithful. But let Me describe to you who the Remnant Faithful are. These are the ones steadfast in the Tradition of Faith. They will not be swayed from these Truths despite popular opinion.”

“These days, many call themselves ‘faithful’ but are so greatly compromised through the use of birth control, participation in abortion and condoning same sex marriage. Do not be fooled by reason of the great numbers who follow this path. Remember, many are called but few are chosen.”

“Dear children, if you remain close to Me through the Holy Rosary, I will lead you in the Truth. The enemy finds it difficult to deceive those who pray the rosary daily. I am forming the Remnant out of the ones who pray the rosary – not just recite it. Make it known.”

Holy Love

A false and lawless leader will rise to power

January 25, 2014

Jesus comes holding His Mournful Heart. He says: “I am your Jesus, born Incarnate.” 

“I come, once again, to reiterate that title alone does not make a worthy leader. It is what is accepted in the heart as Truth which makes the person worthy or unworthy. If he believes the reality of the facts can be twisted to suit his own agenda, he is not a good leader and unworthy of your affiliation.”

“You must begin to accept this, for in the future a false and lawless leader will rise to power [the Antichrist – Maitreya]. He will bring a false peace into the world. It will all be a delusion. Many will be tricked into believing in him just as many have followed false leaders in the past. He will not have Truth in his heart, but Satan’s deceit.”

“I warn you now. Do not be tricked by who believes in him. Pay attention to what I am saying to you today.”

Holy Love

Socci: The New Inquisitors against Ratzinger; Demolition of the Church

From Rorate Caeli

Socci: Ratzinger is the true target of the New Inquisitors

The Self-Demolition of the Church bemoaned by Paul VI begins anew

THE NEW INQUISITORS AGAINST RATZINGER

The Self- Demolition of the Church recommences

Antonio Socci

January 26, 2014

There have been some great popes whose pontificates have been practically discarded by the errors of the clerics in their entourage. This risk is also present for the pontificate of Pope Francis.

In fact, there have been episodes, decisions and “bizarre outbursts” by some prelates that have been quite disturbing. I am thinking of Cardinal Maradiaga and Cardinal Braz de Aviz, who feel they are so powerful in the Vatican that they can ‘use the club’ on both the Prefect of the former Holy Office, Müller, as well as on the ‘Franciscans of the Immaculate.’

AGAINST BENEDICT

The targets of their “club-beatings” (given obviously in the name of mercy) are those who, for different reasons, have been targeted as paladins of Catholic orthodoxy and have had dealings with Pope Benedict XVI.

The real target in fact, appears actually to be him: “guilty” of so many things: from his historical condemnation of Liberation Theology and the defense of correct doctrine, to the Motu Proprio on the liturgy.

Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga is Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, in Honduras – a decadent diocese. But the prelate, who is running around the stages of the world’s mass-media, recently caused an uproar because of the interview he gave to a German newspaper, where – along with new-age rubbish and third-world banalities – he publically attacked the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Müller, to whom the Pope has just given the cardinal’s hat. This is also scandalous seeing that Maradiaga is the head of the commission which should reform the Curia.

What had happened? Müller, who was called to that office by Benedict XVI and confirmed by Francis, had reaffirmed in recent months that – even though new pastoral ways may be sought (already indicated by Benedict XVI) – the upcoming Synod on the Family, cannot subvert the law of God with “a false call to mercy” with regard to the man-woman family, which was established by Jesus in the Gospel and which has always been taught by the Church.

THE MARADIAGA SHOW

Müller, who had already been personally attacked by Hans Küng, has [now] been liquidated by Maradiaga with these words: “he is German and also a German professor of theology. There is only true and false in his mentality. That’s all. But I say: my brother, the world is not like this, you should be a little more flexible.” Words that have scandalized many of the faithful. Above all, because the allusion to “the German professor of theology” inevitably brings to mind that perhaps the target is Benedict XVI, who called Müller to that office. Also because a public attack between cardinals is completely out of order, as if Muller was there to sustain his own personal theology and not the constant teaching of the Church and all of the popes.

In the end, according to Maradiaga, it would be wrong to examine reality in terms of true and false – he forgets that Jesus Christ in the Gospel gave this precise commandment: “But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is from evil.” (Mt. 5,37).

Does Maradiaga prefer “that which is over and above these” to the proclamation of the Truth? On the themes regarding the family, where [now] we have an ideological attack similar to the Marxist one of the Seventies, various ecclesiastics are ready – as they were then – to cave in shamefully.

And they do it with Maradiaga’s sophisms, which state that, yes, Jesus’ words on marriage are binding, “but they can be interpreted” as today there are many new situations of cohabitation and “answers which can no longer be based on authoritarianism and moralism” are needed.

This sentence alone liquidates the entire Magisterium of the Church: evidently according to Maradiaga even Jesus was authoritarian and moralistic since He expressed Himself with great clarity.

But what does “more pastoral care than doctrine” mean? Every great pastor, from St. Ambrose to St. Charles [Borromeo], from Don Bosco to Padre Pio, have been paladins of doctrine.

Maradiaga says that what is needed for the family are “answers suitable for the world of today.” These are empty, ellusive words which foster confusion and doubt. And this is the typical way which is spreading in the Church today, to raise questions without providing answers.

Concerning such things, St. Thomas Aquinas had this to say: “Well, these ones are false prophets, or false doctors, inasmuch as, raising a doubt without resolving it is the same as conceding to it.” (Sermon “Attendite a falsis prophetis”).

Today there are those in the Church who prefer the famous questionnaire associated with the Synod (which was sent to all the dioceses of the world and is presented by some as a survey) to the words of Jesus reported in the Gospel – as if revealed Truth should be substituted by the most diverse opinions.

SELF-DEMOLITION

Also this takes us back to the Seventies, when Paul VI alarmed, denounced:

“So Christian truth is undergoing fearful shocks and crises. They will not accept the teaching of the magisterium […] There are some who try to make the faith easy by emptying it – the whole, the true faith – of those truths which appear to be unacceptable to the modern mind. They follow their own tastes, to choose a truth which is considered to be acceptable… Others are looking for a new faith especially a new belief about the Church. They are trying to bring her into line with the ideas of modern sociology and secular history.“

It is like instantly wiping away the pontificates of Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI to return to the dark years of the Seventies, to the self-demolition of the Church (as Paul VI defined it).

This is not renewal, but a return to the most disastrous past.

THE SHAME

Another episode of the Church’s self-demolition is the persecution of the “Franciscans of the Immaculate”, one of the most orthodox, the most vibrant (full of vocations), the most ascetic and missionary of religious families. But their zealous faithfulness to Benedict XVI (which I have already written about in these columns) starting with his Motu Proprio on the liturgy, has not been forgiven.

The reversal of roles is shocking. In fact we have obedient Catholics in the dock while in the role of inquisitor we have Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, who in a long interview, had nostalgic words of praise for the disastrous Liberation Theology, not caring at all about the condemnations of it by Popes Benedict and John Paul II.

Braz de Aviz peacefully confessed that, at the time, he had been ready to leave the seminary for those social ideas. However, he has made a career for himself. Today he is Head of the Congregation for Religious and he is not even a religious.

The prelate, who proclaims that he is a great friend of the Community of Sant’Egidio, has a strange idea about dialogue. For him, it is important for everyone, except for Catholics most faithful to the Magisterium.

When he was Archbishop of Brasilia, he peacefully took part and was a speaker at a conference of the “Fórum Espiritual Mundial” with the former friar Leonardo Boff, leader of Liberation Theology, Nestor Masotti, President of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, Ricardo Lindemann, President of the Theosophical Society in Brazil, and Hélio Pereira, Grand Master of the [local] Grand Lodge.

As soon as he arrived at the helm of the Congregation for Religious, he immediately began dialogue with the “lively” Congregations of religious sisters in the United States [the LCWR], who had given Pope Benedict a very hard time. Braz made a sort of criticism of the Holy See: “we have begun again to listen…With no preventative condemnations.”

On the other hand, regarding the Franciscans of the Immaculate, who have never given any problems – he never called them nor listened to them. They have been subjected to preventative condemnation – and a very heavy one at that.

Quite odd, is it not? Some days ago “Vatican Insider” headlined: “There are fewer and fewer friars and nuns in Italy.” Do you believe that Braz de Aviz is worried about this? Not at all. He is interested in punishing one of the few orders where vocations are in the increase.

In the first number of “Jesus” [the monthly of the Society of St. Paul and one of the most important Catholic periodicals in Italy] in 2014, a monument is built to Vito Mancuso [Professor, famous for his “progressive” views on bioethics], famed for denying “a dozen dogmas” (as “La Civiltà Cattolica” reported). But be assured nobody will make any objections to the Daughters of St. Paul about it.

Instead, the “Franciscans of the Immaculate” are being repressed for having defended the dogmas of the Church.

The self-demolition has recommenced in earnest.