Time for Catholics to wake up and start moving the needle

Watch this Vortex. While Michael Voris exposes much of the corrupt hierarchy, he gives Francis a complete pass. I suppose that he is not to judge?

Young Priests Observant on Francis – Abp. Diarmuid Martin criticizes them

Excerpts from the Tablet

Pope Francis’ courage is causing disquiet among those with “a very conformist and closed Catholicism” the Archbishop of Dublin has warned.

… The young priest felt they “were not in line with what he had learned in the seminary” [he is right!] and he suggested that they were “making the faithful insecure and even encouraging those who do not hold the orthodox Catholic beliefs to challenge traditional teaching.”

The archbishop warned conservative and progressive Catholics against becoming “closed in” within our own ideas. He also acknowledged that Irish Catholicism had a strong tradition of strict teaching.

Fr. Z has commentary on this here. A brief excerpt:

They didn’t, I notice, find a priest on the other side of the issue, a conservative or traditional priest, to react.   Conservatives get an additional pounding, but the progressives?  They get a pass.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s seminaries are empty. [by their fruit you will know them]

Read it all at the Tablet and at Fr. Z.

Francis Bad Examples

Excerpts from Restore DC Catholicsm

“A few weeks ago I wrote about the debacle that Pope Francis allowed, if not orchestrated, at the Vatican Gardens on Pentecost Sunday.  Well it seems that the fallout was rather immediate.  In a Catholic Church in Orlando, FL, also on Pentecost Sunday, two Muslim men were allowed to give their “reflections” – in place of the homily!  See this Zenit article.“

“… Moreover, my blogging colleagues Eponymous Flower and Rorate Caeli have other posts that vocalize what many of us are sensing: that traditional reverence in the Catholic Church is regarded with suspicion if not outright contempt. …“

“In the Catholic Church, it’s now Open Season on Conservatives”

Read why at Rorate Caeli.

This is merely a hint of what is to come, especially after the October 2104 Synod.

Men must recognize the errors in their own hearts and see the need of His Mercy or else experience His Justice

April 27, 2014
Divine Mercy Sunday

(This Message was given in multiple parts over several days.)

On Friday April 25, Blessed Mother came and said: “Praise be to Jesus.”

“I have come to preface My Son’s public message so that all will thoroughly understand His Words and the message will have full impact.”

“My Son begins by calling all people into His Mercy. He warns that souls must hasten to recognize the errors in their own hearts and see the need of His Mercy or else experience His Justice.”

“The last part of His message addresses the Remnant Faithful. He is now forming the New Jerusalem in hearts that cling to the Truths of Tradition. He refers briefly to His Second Coming when He will be seated on the Temple Mount. He refers to the Remnant as a holy nation. It is a nation in hearts, not in any specific location.”

“Meditate on these Truths of these times.”

Jesus is here as He is in the Divine Mercy Image. He says: “I am your Jesus, born Incarnate.”

“As you gather to celebrate the Feast of My Divine Mercy, celebrate as well, My Mercy of Holy Love – the Messages and all the graces attendant here at this site. Realize that Holy Love is My Last Profound Intervention between the heart of the world and My Own Most Mournful Heart. The next intervention, which I hold back by merit of the prayers of the faithful, will be My Justice. The action of My Arm of Restraint is withheld by the Will of the Father. Only He knows the terrible hour of its release.”

“I come to strengthen and increase the Remnant and make firm their resolve in the Truth.”

“I tell you, solemnly, the conscience of the world has become convoluted due to the compromise of Truth. Evil is not recognized as evil. Sin is no longer recognized as sin. Therefore, people do not seek out My Mercy. They see no need of My Mercy. Yet, I tell you, My Divine Mercy is the world’s last recourse of hope.”

“The gravest threat to mankind is not war or nuclear disaster, or even grave natural disasters. The biggest threat to mankind is his inability to distinguish good from evil. Thus, he continues to weaken his relationship with Me and to cease searching out My Father’s Divine Will. This disconnect between Heaven and earth needs to be man’s greatest concern and most urgent cause for correction. Herein lies the remedy for peace and restoration of prosperity.”

“Today, I come to make of you a new nation – a nation set apart from all others, a nation which is not bound by geographical borders, politics or economy. It shall be a nation like no other. It is destined to be a nation in hearts; hearts which embrace the Truth and live in Holy Love. This nation is formed from My Overflowing Mercy for souls. It will be governed by the Divine Will of My Father. He will show no favoritism; nor will He accommodate or pander to those in error. He will, at His Perfect Time, place Me in victory over all error and I will be seated on the Temple Mount. Then, you will be given the freedom to love Me openly and to pray whenever and wherever you desire.”

“Yes, I am laying today the foundation of the New Jerusalem in all hearts that live in Truth.”

“This holy nation – this nation of Truth that I speak of is the Remnant Faithful. It is these tenacious souls who will form the foundation of the New Jerusalem. They have already begun to do so as they cling to Tradition.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2 Thessalonians Ch 2:13-15

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the Truth.

To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the Traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Today, I invite you to celebrate My Mercy in your hearts and in the world around you. It is My Mercy that sustains you and the world during these troubled times. You do not fully realize the dangers of choosing unwisely nor the consequences of sin. Let us begin anew today. Let us strike a new path of righteousness through the thicket of compromised Truth.”

“My brothers and sisters, I am using all your prayers today and from last night towards the intention of wrapping the heart of the world in My Divine Mercy. Thus My Mournful Heart will be somewhat appeased.”

“Now Jesus has Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII with Him and they all bless us.”

The media image now is of a pontiff rejecting the traditions of the Church

Excerpts from the Catholic Herald UK

Father Longenecker has an amusing blog this week, headlined “archbishops should live in palaces”. “I think the Pope should live in the Apostolic Palace”, he says, “and I think Archbishop Wilton [Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, who is moving out three months after moving in] should live in his brand new $2.2m home.

…

And I end with one or two simple questions. Firstly, does anyone seriously think, because he wore the scarlet mozzetta and red shoes, and went to his duties driven in a white Merc (by a driver who wept at his final departure) that Pope Benedict was NOT the profoundly humble and holy man he clearly was, for all that he didn’t consciously project humility?

My final questions are these: does Pope Francis’s abolition of what Fr Z calls the “trappings and signs of office, solemn and traditional” not carry a certain danger: that of making his own papacy appear to be a projection of his own engaging personality and of the ways of doing things that he personally finds come naturally to him?

Trendies and Traddies

[Another clerical deer in the headlights, having to explain what was meant as distinct from what was said.]

From NC Register

How the Shepherd Prods the Flock

by Father Dwight Longenecker Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 6:28 AM

The Good Shepherd carries a staff to help him herd the sheep. With the crook at the top, he can reach out to rescue the fallen, and with the point at the bottom, he can prod the sheep if necessary to keep them in line.

It is no mistake, therefore, when one blogger described Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) as “the shepherd prodding the flock.” One commenter complained that the Pope was “a scold.”

He may be scolding, but his comments are also scalding. If we listen carefully, we’ll realize that the smiling “peoples’ pope” has some harsh criticism for a whole range of people — including Catholics. His words are blunt, and we’re beginning to realize that they don’t call him “Pope Frank” for nothing!

Pope Francis says if we are to evangelize we “must not look like we’ve just come from a funeral,” and “there are some Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” After an inspirational start, in the second chapter, the Holy Father gets down to business. He opposes an economy of exclusion, decries the idolatry of money and demands an economy which serves instead of enslaves. He cries out against inequality that leads to violence and acknowledges a range of cultural problems that impede evangelization.

Then he goes on to assess problems in the Church. He says “No” to spiritual sloth and “Yes” to a vibrant missionary mentality. He says “No” to a sterile pessimism and “Yes” to new relationships in Christ. Then, in the midst of a rich exhortation that bears detailed study, the Pope makes a very astute analysis of what he calls “spiritual worldliness” — a religion that looks perfectly fine on the outside but is rotten on the inside.

Pope Francis says this spiritual worldliness takes many forms depending on the groups or individuals into which it seeps, but he goes on to define two forms of this spiritual malaise which we cannot help but see as a criticism of two tendencies among Catholics: what I call the trendies and the traddies.

He says, “This worldliness can be fueled in two deeply interrelated ways. One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideologies and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings.”

Gnosticism was a heresy in the early Church that was free-ranging, amorphous and difficult to define. This was because it was based in subjective feelings, personal revelation and individualistic interpretations of the truth. Gnosticism was notoriously shaky on an orthodox understanding of the Incarnation. Some gnostics got caught up in what we would recognize as New Age-type beliefs, while others turned the faith into a bland, humanistic self-help religion.

This sounds like the “trendies” to me — Catholics who are caught up in subjective New Age spiritualities combined with politicized agendas. These modern Catholics are only concerned about worldly power, and they believe the mission of the Church is no more than to make the world a better place.

The Pope describes them saying, “This spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and political gain or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs or an obsession with programs of self-help and self-realization. It can also translate into a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions.”

If Pope Francis criticizes the “trendies” for their subjective worldliness, he also criticizes the “traddies” with some astoundingly erudite nomenclature. He says, “The other [form of spiritual worldliness] is the self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby, instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.”

What on earth is “promethean neo-pelagianism”? Prometheus was the Greek god who, by individual genius and effort, raised humanity by stealing fire. The translators have chosen this word to express the Pope’s vision of self-absorbed Catholics who thinks they know it all and have it all worked out. And Pelagius was the heretic who taught that humans could earn their own salvation.

We can’t help but see radical traditionalists as the Pope’s target. He pinpoints their “supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline” and their intransigent allegiance to traditional worship. He also dashes their judgmental attitudes that end up as a “narcissistic and authoritarian elitism” and assesses their self-defined and determined form of Catholicism as neo-pelagianism.

Pope Francis quite rightly sees that neither the “trendies” nor the “traddies” will be able to evangelize effectively. In harsh and blunt criticism rarely seen in papal documents, he says, “In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism.” By “anthropocentric immanentism,” he means the idea of God being centered in human activity and ideas that mimic true religion. He goes on to state, “It is impossible to think that a genuine evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.”

These statements are not simply an attack on Catholic “trendies” and “traddies.” In many ways, this paragraph lies at the heart of understanding Pope Francis and his whole mission. Put simply, he recapitulates the Gospel message of Christ the Lord and takes us back to the essentials.

As Jesus turned over the tables in the Temple, so Francis turns over those who have set places, established agendas and organized power structures in the Church. As Jesus undermined the Zealots and the Sadducees — who turned the Jewish religion into a humanistic political campaign or a social club, so Francis criticizes Catholics for their shallow spirituality, political agenda and social maneuverings. As Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their narrow-minded legalistic traditionalism, so Francis pulls the rug from under the Catholics who fall into narcissistic and authoritarian elitism.

Pope Francis’ first words to a waiting world included the comment that he was called “from the ends of the world” to be pope. His words carried a deeper meaning, for he is a true outsider.

His fresh approach cuts through all our expectations and categories [and doctrine, for those with spiritual eyes opened, unlike the pharisees of today]. He shifts paradigms, moves us from our comfort zone and demands that we consider our faith from a new perspective — a perspective that is also as ancient, disturbing and table-turning as the Gospel itself.

Video on How Francis is Changing the Catholic Church

33 minute video on how Francis is Changing the Catholic Church

War on Tradition not Normal and Must be Countered

From Rorate Caeli

Priests and seminarians: “Why are you waiting to fight back?”

The following is the January 2014 editorial from Radicati nella Fede. The call to arms for Catholic priests and seminarians whom know tradition but haven’t fully embraced it is especially important:

Practically everything is allowed, everything except Tradition that is.

After the courageous but at the same timid act by Benedict XVI when he constituted the Motu Proprio in 2007, we have witnessed a continuous effort to “confine” Tradition from the Church.

The Holy Father said that the Old Mass had never been abolished.  In some way, he confirmed that it could not be abolished, because Church Authority serves to guard Tradition as source of Revelation, just as it serves to guard Holy Scripture, and may never lord over them; if it lorded over them, the Authority [of the Church] would not be that willed by Our Lord and would take the form of authoritarianism.

Well then, after the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, the various diocesan curia engaged themselves in an unwavering work of stopping, stemming and confining any attempt at a return of the glorious Tradition of the Church, whether it was liturgical or doctrinal.

This has been the complete boycotting of the will of the Pope which was a simple act of justice: the Mass that the Church has celebrated for fifteen centuries and which made Saints cannot be abolished.

Not even the awful lack of priests, which we have seen these past years, not even this will be able to liberate Tradition from its confinement. They would rather be without priests, they would rather close the churches, but they will not allow a traditional priest to celebrate the Mass of ages.

Many priests were ready to pass to Tradition, many were seriously interested in regaining possession of that which is the greatest patrimony in the Church, many of them asked to learn the Old Mass.

Then, like an implacable executioners’ axe, the hatchet fell on those who with joyful simplicity had begun to celebrate it: canonical proceedings, removal from parishes, subtle accusations of schism! (etc.,). You know the story. Thus, a chill has fallen on priests, many of whom were young and who dreamt of being able to go up to the altar “Introibo ad altare Dei…”

And what is to be said about seminarians? “If you love Tradition you are dangerous and are unable to be ordained in the Church,” this is the refrain from superiors of seminaries obedient to their bishops.

A tremendous chill has thus fallen on a potential springtime for souls, first on the priests and then on the faithful. The Pope had hoped for a change of climate in the Church, but the old guard, nowadays in the diocesan curia, made up of ex-‘68ers, has allowed for nothing.

Priests who love Tradition are closed up in a prudential silence and the seminarians in an “apnea” of conscience, so that they will be able to arrive at their longed for ordination, illusorily convinced that things will change once they are priests.

Is all of this normal? Absolutely not, it is not normal in the Church!

Are all those gentlemen who are hostile to Tradition and impede it with strange Byzantinism[s] still concerned about the salvation of souls? Do they still want [to promote] Christianity? Or do they aspire to something different? And if it so, why are they occupying the Church of God?

They have been promoting a new religion with timorous references to the Christianity of the past. They have been working and spending a lot of money(!) in order to transform Catholicism into a religion fit for literary salons; they waste time in trying to restore a painting or commenting on a [literary] text, but they are absent in the field…they are not going into the confessional and they are not going up to altar every day, because they are [busily] engaged in some cultural project.

Are they still worried about souls frequenting the Sacraments? Do they still deem the Sacraments necessary for salvation, or are they only concerned about creating “community” substituting the structure to the essential, that is, to God?

We hope with all our hearts that the new year will bring two things:

1. A leap of courage from all those priests and seminarians who are suffering on behalf of a Church increasingly hostile to its past. We would like to say to them: “Why are you waiting to fight back? Yes, fight back – so as to obey God!” Consider the effects of this Church badly modernized, consider the great sadness that it has produced and obey God joyfully. It is only in this way that you will serve the Church with love, because the Church is – Tradition.

2. An amendment in those who have had such hostility to the Traditional Mass and have imprisoned it. We realize that not all of them operate in bad conscience. To them we would like to say: “Let us have the experience of Tradition,” give us the churches, allow us to look after souls and then come in all simplicity and judge the fruits. You have given churches to the schismatic Orthodox, advertised even the times of worship for the Protestant heretics, when will you release the Mass of all ages from limbo? What would your old parish priests, your grandparents and the saints of over two thousand years of Christianity say?

Forgive us if we have spoken to you with such frankness, we do not want to offend anyone but to stir up an awakening of conscience: in this dramatic situation, there is no time for ceremony.

May the year 2014 remove the torpor of many sincere souls, through the grace of God and the prayers of many.

[Note: the Remnant Church will return to Tradition, the Tridentine Mass, while the one world religion of Francis will establish the abomination of desolation – the destruction of all public Masses.]

More Suppression of Franciscans of the Immaculate

From Eponymous Flower

Sad Christmas for Franciscans of the Immaculate — Three More Mass Locations Closed Down Just Before Christmas

(Rome) The joy of Christmas 2013 has brought another sad note for the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Shortly before the Solemnity, the Apostolic Commissioner, Father Fidenzio Volpi OFM Cap  has closed up three more branches of the Order. Many Traditional Mass locations in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite were connected to the closings. The  faithful were faced with this fact just before the holidays, that they would be without priests and  Mass locations for Christmas.

Of the convents that were closed, one held two Marian shrines, that of Our Lady della Rovere in San Bartolomeo al Mare on the Italian Riviera and that of Our Lady of Pontelungo in Albenga and at the Church of Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio in Imperia. The reason used by  the Apostolic Commissioner was that the Franciscans of the Immaculate have a missionary charism, which is why they should also be active in the mission and is displacing the brothers to the Third World countries. The papal commissioner has already directed the closure of other convents and the exile of leading religious representatives (see separate reports After Rebuilding the Desolation Follows – Commissioner Disbands Convents of the Franciscans of the Immaculate on and The Road to Exile – Purge of Franciscans of the Immaculata ).

All three branches and Mass sites were located in the diocese of Albenga-Imperia in Liguria. The diocese is led by Bishop Mario Oliveri, a traditional diocesan bishop, like Bishop Dominique Rey in the nearby French Diocese of Frejus-Toulon on the Cote d’Azur, who promotes the establishment of old and biritual communities and gives them the task of the care of souls.

The closure of the three religious houses by the papal commissioner came after Bishop Oliveri gave permission for the brothers to live in his diocese, also supporting them in continuing to be able to celebrate in the traditional Rite. The Bishop drew particular attention to the pastoral care of the faithful at the three  Mass sites. “Messa in Latino” refers to a “retaliatory action” against the bishop, if he “had dared to defend the Franciscans of the Immaculate.”

Bishop Oliveri in 2008 was the world’s first diocesan bishop, after the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, of Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate a Pontifical Mass from the throne. Seven Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate took their solemn profession in the Co-Cathedral of Imperia  before the bishop.

“The Commissioner and some brothers collaborating with him, have imposed a climate of intimidation and fear  in the Order,” says a Catholic from Albenga in a letter to Libertà e Persona . “In dealing with the Franciscans of the Immaculate itself, there is little sense of ‘mercy’ and ‘justice’ and  even less ‘brotherly love’. And what can we  ordinary believers do? We pray. But we should also write Pope Francis write personal, because only he can put an end to this destruction of this thriving Order “.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Santuario della Rovere NS / Santuario NS di Pontelungo