Remembering PRESTAGS

Wherefore By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them

 

Today at Mass, the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, was one of my favourite Gospel readings, Matthew 7:15-21:

 

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: [15] Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

[16] By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? [17] Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. [18] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. [19] Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. [20] Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.

[21] Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

 

This reading is so very apt in today's Church, with heresy and perversion everywhere. Right up to the highest levels of the Church. 

Indeed, ever since Vatican II, has the fruits of that Council manifested.

Here is a great summary from the late Michael Davies, who I was privileged to meet many years ago and who was such a faithful son of the Church. The following is from the Appendix to his work "Liturgical Time Bombs" which can be purchased from Amazon. It is important and sobering reading.

 

The Incredible Shrinking Church In England and Wales

   The most evident characteristic of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is that it is shrinking at an incredible rate into what must be termed a state of terminal decline. The official Catholic Directory documents a steady increase in every important aspect of Catholic life until the mid-sixties: then the decline sets in. The figures for marriages and baptisms are not simply alarming, but disastrous. In 1944 there were 30,946 marriages, by 1964 the figure had risen to 45,592-----but by 1999 it had plunged to 13,814, well under half the figure for 1944. The figures for baptisms for the same years are 71,604 (1944), 137,673 (1964), and 63,158 (1999). With fewer children born to Catholic couples each year, the number of marriages must inevitably continue to decline, with even fewer children born-----and so on. Nor can it be presumed that even half the children who are baptized will be practicing their Faith by the time they reach their teens. An examination of the figures for a typical diocese indicates that less than half the children who are baptized  are confirmed, and a report in The Universe as long ago as 1990 gave an estimate of only 11% of young Catholics practicing their Faith when they leave high school.

     Apart from marriages and baptisms, Mass attendance is the most accurate guide to the vitality of the Catholic community. The figure has plunged from 2,114,219 in 1966 to 1,041,728 in 1999 and is still falling at a rate of about 32,000 a year.

      In 1944, 178 priests were ordained; in 1964, 230; and in 1999 only 43-----and in the same year 121 priests died.

      In 1985, twenty years after the Second Vatican Council, bishops from all over the world assembled in Rome to assess the impact of the Council. This gave them the opportunity to admit that their implementation of it had been disastrous, and that drastic measures must be taken to give the Faith a viable future in First World countries.

     Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster insisted, on behalf of the bishops of England and Wales, that there must be no turning back from the policies they had adopted to implement the Council. A report in The Universe of December 13, 1985 informed us that the Synod had adopted Cardinal Hume's position without a single dissenting voice. The final sentence of this report must be described as ironically prophetic: "In the meantime the people of God have a firm mandate to further Exodus along the route mapped out by the Second Vatican Council." Change the upper case "E" of Exodus to a lower case "e," exodus, and this is precisely what has happened-----and the exodus will continue until Catholicism in England and Wales vanishes into oblivion within thirty years, if not sooner. Without a Divine intervention, the "Second Spring" of the Catholic Faith in England predicted by Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) will end in the bleakest of winters.

The Incredible Shrinking Church In the United States

     In March 2003 there was published in St. Louis what is certainly the most important statistical survey of the Church in the United States since Vatican II: Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II, by Kenneth C. Jones. ₁ It provides meticulously documented statistics on every aspect of Catholic life subject to statistical verification, and it is illustrated with graphs which depict in a dramatic visual manner the catastrophic collapse of Catholic life in the United States since the Council. With the publication of this book, no rational person could disagree with Father Louis Bouyer that, "Unless we are blind, we must even state bluntly that what we see looks less like the hoped-for regeneration of Catholicism than its accelerated decomposition." ₂

   Mr. Jones has given me his permission to quote from the introduction to his book, but before doing so, I must quote: from a news story in the March 23, 2003 issue of the London Universe. Under the headline "En SuiteMonastery," it reports: "A former Irish Carmelite monastery is expected to 
be turned into a country-club style hotel after its sale to a property developer. The Carmelite order had shut their house in Castle Martyr, Cork, last year after 73 years because of the downfall in vocations." This is but one of thousands of similar examples of the actual, as opposed to the fantasy, fruits of Vatican II. On page 100 of Mr. Jones' book there is a graph revealing that the number of Carmelite seminarians in the United States has decreased from 545 in 1965 to 46 in 2000-----a decline of 92 percent. This figure seems positively healthy when compared with the graph on page 99, relating to the La Salette Fathers, which reveals a decline in the number of seminarians for the same period from 552 to just 1. Figures and graphs for every major religious order are set out in the book, and it would be hard to disagree with Mr. Jones that "The religious orders will soon be virtually non-existent in the United States." In the introduction to his book he writes:

         When Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the Catholic Church in America was in the midst of an unprecedented period of growth. Bishops were ordaining record numbers of priests and building scores of seminaries to handle the surge in vocations. Young women by the thousands gave up lives of comfort for the austerity of the convent. These nuns taught millions of students in the huge system of parochial and private schools.

The ranks of Catholics swelled as parents brought in their babies for Baptism and adult converts flocked to the Church. Lines outside the confessionals were long, and by some estimates three quarters of the faithful went to Mass every Sunday. Given this favorable state of affairs, some Catholics  wondered at the time whether an ecumenical council was opportune-----don't rock the boat, they said.

        The Holy Father chided these people in his opening speech to the Council: "We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand." Forty years later the end has not arrived. But we are now facing the disaster.

        Even some in the Vatican have recognized it. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said: "Certainly the results [of Vatican II] seem cruelly opposed to the expectations of everyone, beginning with those of Pope John XXIII and then of Pope Paul VI . . . "

        Since Cardinal Ratzinger made these remarks in 1984, the crisis in the Church has accelerated. In every area that is statistically verifiable-----for example, the number of priests, seminarians, priestless parishes, nuns, Mass attendance, converts and annulments-----the "process of decadence" is apparent.

        I have gathered these statistics in the Index of Leading Catholic Indicators because the magnitude of the emergency is unknown to many. Beyond a vague understanding of a "vocations crisis," both the faithful and the general public have no idea how bad things have been since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Here are some of the stark facts:

• Priests. After skyrocketing from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States  dropped to 45,000 in 2002. By 2020,₃ there will be about 31,000 priests-----and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70. Right now there are more priests aged 80 to 84 than there 1 are aged 30 to 34.

• Ordinations. In 1965 there were 1,575 ordinations to the priesthood, in 2002 there were 450, a decline of 350 percent. Taking into account ordinations, deaths and departures, in 1965 there was a net gain of 725 priests. In 1998, there was a net loss of 810.

• Priestless parishes. About 1 percent of parishes, 549, were without a resident priest in 1965. In 2002 there were 2,928 priestless parishes, about 15 percent of U.S. parishes. By 2020, a quarter of all parishes, 4,656, will have no priest.

• Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700-----a 90 percent decrease. Without any students, seminaries across the country have been sold or shuttered. There were 596 seminaries in 1965, and only 200 in 2002.

• Sisters. 180,000 sisters were the backbone of the Catholic education and health systems in 1965. In 2002, there were 75,000 sisters, with an average age of 68. By 2020, the number of sisters will drop to 40,000-----and of these, only 21,000 will be aged 70 or under. In 1965, 104,000 sisters were teaching, while in 2002 there were only 8,200 teachers.

• Brothers. The number of professed brothers decreased from about 12,000 in 1965 to 5,700 in 2002, with a further drop to 3,100 projected for 2020.

• Religious Orders. The religious orders will soon be virtually non-existent in the United States. For example, in 1965 there were 5,277 Jesuit priests and 3,559 seminarians; in 2000 there were 3,172 priests and 38 seminarians. There were 2,534 OFM Franciscan priests and 2,251 seminarians in 1965; in 2000 there were 1,492 priests and 60 seminarians. There were 2,434 Christian Brothers in 1965 and 912 seminarians; in 2000 there were 959 Brothers and 7 seminarians. There were 1,148 Redemptorist priests in 1965 and 1,128 seminarians; in 2000 there were 349 priests and 24 seminarians. Every major religious order in the United States mirrors these statistics.

• High Schools. Between 1965 and 2002 the number of diocesan high schools fell from 1,566 to 786. At the same time the number of students dropped from almost 700,000 to 386,000.

• Parochial Grade Schools. There were 10,503 parochial grade schools in 1965 and 6,623 in 2002. The number of students went from 4.5 million to 1.9 million.

• Sacramental Life. In 1965 there were 1.3 million infant baptisms; in 2002 there were 1 million. (In the same period the number of Catholics in the United States rose from 45 million to 65 million.) In 1965 there were 126,000 adult baptisms-----converts-----in 2002 there were 80,000. In 1965 there were 352,000 Catholic marriages, in 2002 there were 256,000. In 1965 there were 338 annulments, in 2002 there were 50,000.

• Mass attendance. A 1958 Gallup poll reported that 74 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1958. A 1994 University of Notre Dame study found that the attendance rate was 26.6 percent. A more recent study by Fordham University professor James Lothian concluded that 65 percent of Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1965, while the rate dropped to 25 percent in 2000.

The decline in Mass attendance highlights another significant fact; fewer and fewer people who call themselves Catholic actually follow Church rules or accept Church doctrine. For example, a 1999 poll by the National Catholic Reporter shows that 77 percent believe a person can be a 
good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday, 65 percent believe good Catholics can divorce and remarry, and 53 percent believe Catholics can have abortions and remain in good standing. Only 10 percent of lay religion teachers accept Church teaching on artificial birth control, according to a 2000 University of Notre Dame poll. And a New York Times/CBS poll revealed that 70 percent of Catholics age 18-44 believe the Eucharist is merely a "symbolic reminder" of Jesus.

It is the same incredible shrinking Church in Australia. Declining Mass attendance, and rampant erroneous belief. Modernism triumphant.

I grew up in the liturgical and heretical horrors of the 1970s.  The dark side of the PRESTAGS era. There were glimmers (brief and limited) of sunshine under Pope St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. However any hope of a restoration has faded with the resignation of Benedict XVI and the installation of the St Gallen Mafia's Pope, supported by the Lavender Mafia.

The lightening strike on the day Pope Benedict announced his resignation has turned out to be symbolic. Since then, the accellerator is down and the destruction of what remains of the Church is underway.

I don't think the Church has had such perversion and moral corruption at the highest levels for 500 years. I don't think the Church has had such heresy and doctrinal corruption for 1,700 years.

And now both together.

There are two really good books that describe what has happened to the Church, with each book still managing to encourage hope.

A history of the plot, largely successful, to infiltrate the Church and the consequences is Taylor Marshall's "Infiltration, The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within". Available on Amazon. I have just finished reading this book.

Another book is Michael Voris' "Resistance, Fighting the Devil Within". Also on Amazon. I'm reading this book now.

Here are some extracts from the forward to Michael Voris' book. Spot on. 

Whatever happens, we are each called to remain faithful.

And Christ has won the victory and nothing can change that.

 

Weep For France

 

^{Decline and Fall:}

But There is Hope:

 

Can a phone take a photograph of batteries?

We have long been told that mobile phones cannot take pictures of batteries. But does this claim stand up to scrutiny?

A simple test at home

I tried a simple experiment (despite clear warnings from professionals not to try this at home - what are they trying to hide?) in the back yard. I lined up five batteries

...at a 45 degree angle to the wood grain of the picnic table (ah ha! whine the experts - their minds filled with the dream of world government - wood grain is too imprecise to align anything to 0.39269908169 radians!) and then aligned the mobile phone to the grain and clicked snap. What happened, you ask? Did the monsoon fail, the glaciers shrink, or the arctic become ice free? I don't think do. The sun still shone, the sky was blue and the grass still green. Furthermore, neither the batteries, nor my phone, nor my brain exploded. I just got a photo of batteries.

The Fear Campaign Debunked

The Intergovernmental Photography and Camera Committee (IPCC) has long been flooding the media with their scare campaigns, including their infamous hockey stick chart!

They use this chart to claim that batteries will run out of colours by 2018! But that is simply the deceit of these so called experts. Notice that the curve just shows so called production quantity, but the inclusion of different coloured batteries are an attempt to link colour of batteries to time. But this claim just does not stand up!

Batteries have not changed colour since 1984

Yes, you may be shocked to hear such heresy, so I will repeat my claim, "Batteries have not changed colour since 1984!" I can back this claim up with simple photographic evidence, and I welcome the reader to do the same. I event use the same techniques as the so called experts.

Here is a sample of the batteries I photographed today. Any IPCC-lovers are welcome to come and watch me photograph the batteries - I await their pleasure.

Here is a sample of a battery from 1984

Does anyone doubt that these both are white writing on black background. You can check it yourself if you wish: http://www.wholesalebatteriesdirect.com/740-honda-1200-motorcycle-batteries

"You have to look at the wider picture", scream the deceitful IPCC. Ha! I say. They just are trying to confuse us with ISO rating, focal lengths and purported advanced optics. If the falsehood is shown in a simple test like this, it cannot be altered by muddying the waters!

The Oceans are Filling up with Batteries?

The so called experts of the IPCC are claiming that the colours of batteries appear to be in the ocean. It would be funny if it was not for their plan to secretly tax the Caucasians of the world to pay for their so-called anode-engineering projects. Here is the Black Sea. It is Black? QED!

IPCC are not as clever as they think

The IPCC claim to be the experts in photographing batteries. If they are so clever and able to think outside the box, why are all their publications always just black text on white background, except for the clearly fabricated photos of batteries. You can write in any colour text and the falsity of your logic is unchanged. This blog clearly demonstrates that indisputable facts can be presented in many colours. Can't it?

Yes! A phone can take pictures of batteries. Next time someone tries to tell you otherwise, just chortle and asked "Who paid you for your opinion?"

 

Saint Athanasius - saint for our times

St Athanasius 'contra mundum'

"Saint Athanasius lived in the fourth century during the time of what used to be considered the greatest crisis of faith ever to befall the Catholic Church, the Arian Heresy. (The Arians denied the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ). The vast majority of Churchmen fell into this heresy, so much so that Saint Jerome wrote of the period, "The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian"."

Today we might say: "The whole Church groaned and was amazed to find itself Bergoglian Protestant" One might go even further to ask whether "it is amazed to find itself non-christian"

 

Sitting Python Says

Man who paddle upstream can be friend. So can man who paddle downstream.

Sunset

This is a photo of the sunset from my back verandah. This picture also captures some of my darker thoughts. Is this also the sunset of the Church, under the worst Pope in centuries. 

Distressingly, this Pope seems determined to court the adoration of the world, and to speak and act in the nasty way of the world. For example, some of the comments made by the Holy Father at the annual meeting with the clergy of Rome held on February 19.

Our Lord taught us: "If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15.18-19) and "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil" (John 7.7).

 

Will We Have an Excommunicated Prime Minister?

In the past I have been an admirer of Tony Abbott, especially of his public stand in favour of genuine Catholic values. Unfortunately he has not been a successful Prime Minister, and has shown himself to be out of touch, even for his natural constituency like me.

Since becoming Prime Minister I have not heard anything about Catholic values, and I lost him early over his premature attacks on Russia following the downing of the Malaysian airline (which has still not been proved to have been shot down by the East Ukrainian separatists, let alone the Russians) and idiotic decisions like the honour for Prince Phillip (a vampire) reinforced my concerns and those of many others.

Abbott is now a dead man walking, and in the interests of a Conservative government he should have resigned to avoid a leadership dispute and all the damage that comes with this. But no: pride prevails. I don't think he will be tossed next Tuesday (he will be tossed in a second round in 4 or 5 months time) but he will be wounded, and drag down the entire government.

But what of the other leadership contenders? I don't think we will end up with another Catholic.

Julie Bishop is an Anglican, and Scott Morrison is a Pentecostalist  (former Uniting Church) with strong ties to Hill Song.

The other contender is Malcolm Turnbull, who describes himself as a convert to Catholicism.

But is Malcolm Turnbull really a Catholic?

Turnbull is in the vein of so called United States "Catholic" politicians who have sold their souls to a number of critical anti-Catholic issues to garner popularity and votes. The trouble is, that this process can take you right out of the Church.

Turnbull is a supporter of abortion, and publicly so, and as the main speaker at the recent Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) conference in Canberra he surprised his pro-life audience by stating quite clearly that he believed women had the right to end an unwanted pregnancy. Turnbull has also expressed in Parliament that he is in favour of cloning and the RU-486 abortion pill, and his pro homosexual views are well known.

Under Canon Law (Cannon 1398) a person who "procures a completed abortion" incurs a latae sententiae excommunication. The phrase "latae sententie" means a judgment which is incurred automatically "by the very commission of the offence" and does not require the future particular judgement of a case by a competent authority.

There has been much debate about whether a politician who votes in favour of abortion laws "procures a completed abortion". I think so because legislating in favour of abortion creates substantial assistance for tens of thousands of women to commit the mortal sin of abortion, and is a form of procurement. Nevertheless, there are some Catholic commentators who doubt this.

However, the issue of abortion and Canon Law does not end here. Under Cannon 1364 "an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs a latae sententie excommunication". And heresy is defined (Canon 751) as "the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is believed by divine and Catholic faith". The Catholic Church has always taught that abortion, like all voluntary killing of an innocent human being, is always gravely immoral.

For example, Saint John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, n. 57: “Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”

As Saint Thomas Aquinas said: "The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval." We now calls these heretical Catholics "cafeteria Catholics".

Sadly, Malcolm Turnbull's consistent and public position on abortion makes him a heretic, and subject to excommunication. I'm sorry to be graphic but abortion is mass production pure evil and is devouring the world. We should not forget what abortion is and we should pray for his conversion.

 

Hypocrisy and Heresy - The Revolutionary Cheer Squad

As Thygocanberra has commented upon many times, there is much to get depressed about with the current papacy.

One of the things that particularly irks me is the cheer squad for Pope Francis in this country, which seems to be the bitter and twisted brigade of yesterday's modernists and de facto heretics, who are now revelling in what they perceive as their moment in the sun. Prime offender is the tired old Paul Collins, who just can't contain himself with excitement at the prospect of revolution and change, change, change. I wonder how may people have converted to the practice of the faith because of Paul Collins' writings, as opposed to how many have left. I wonder whether he would even care.

Collins writes regularly for the Jesuit journal Eureka Street, which loves to publish articles attacking any version of the Australian Catholic Church that does not fit with the journal's ideology. Eureka Street describes itself "as a vibrant online journal of analysis, commentary and reflection on current issues in the worlds of politics, religion and culture. It aims to participate in public discussion and influence public opinion regarding the Things That Matter in Australia and the world" and claims to be "informed by the values of Jesuit spirituality and in particular the principles of Catholic Social Teaching". In practice this means bringing as much of the world into the Church as possible, and extinguishing any concept of a light on a hill.

In true Eureka Street tradition, recently Collins wrote an article about Pope Francis and the Synod on the Family, which article is the biggest load of bollocks I have read in a long time although it does contain remarkable modernist admissions. Collins writes that there are two camps in the Church, one that views the problems in modern society as originating from church teaching on morality and sexuality (ie the Church has caused problems, and the Church is and has been wrong and we should just follow the secular world) and another camp that views the contemporary world and its values as itself constituting a threat and a danger to Church teaching and practice. The first camp wants to surrender to the world, and ignore all the supposedly hard bits of Our Lord's teaching. The second camp wants the Church to strive to change the world.

Collins portrays Pope Francis as the hero and leader of the first camp, and all the Bishops in the second camp (still the majority of Bishops) as overtly hostile to the Pope and lacking leadership. These Bishops in reality are not opposed to the Papacy, they are simply defending the Gospel and doctrines and practices of the last 2,000 years. The bottom line is that Collins and his ilk want to change Church teaching on all manner of fundamental doctrines, they are wholly subscribed to the homosexual agenda, and they are no different to Protestants. They squeal every time their "revolution" receives any opposition.

What is particularly amusing is that Collins is critical of the Bishops for not charging blindly down the Pope's path. This is the same Collins who has previously incited disobedience to more conservative Popes and has challenged Papal power and the nature of the teaching authority of the Church. Suddenly Collins perceives that there is revolutionary Pope (he may not be quite what Collins thinks and I certainly hope not) and Collins is now demanding the kind of unthinking support and obedience that he spent the last 25 years attacking. You couldn't make this stuff up.

The bottom line for those minority Bishops who attempted to hijack the Synod on the Family, and for their cheer squad like Collins, is  the removal of any Church authority in sexual matters. And even if this group fails to change doctrines they will be quite content with a change in practices and modes of behaviour ('acceptance' and 'tolerance') because they know, as the destruction of the Church after Vatican II made only too clear, that a change in practice today becomes a defacto change in doctrine tomorrow for  a poorly educated Priesthood and laity. 

Still No Global Warming

And the "hockey stick" is definitely not shaped like a hockey stick.

ThygoCanberra has been particularly enjoying the global warming over the last two months. Perhaps now the true scientists will be permitted to publish, and to speak.

Australia Day

As Paul rightly points out, Australia is in dire need of conversion.

Let us then have recourse to our Patroness, Our Lady Help of Christians.

 

Help of Christians guard this land

From assault or inward stain,

Let it be what Christ has planned,

His new Eden where you reign.

 

Teach us that in Christ your Son

Lies the wisdom to be free.

For the cross which we would shun,

Is our tree of liberty.

 

Should the powers of Hell arise

And our peace be trampled down

In that night of blood and lies,

Show us still your twelve-starred crown.

 

Take from us the coward heart,

Fleeting we will divide it nine.

Of our sight to play our part,

Though the world around is blind.

 

Image of the risen light,

Shining in eternity.

Glimmer through our earthly strife,

Draw us to your Victory.

R Connolly

But GK Chesterton's hymn also comes to mind:

O God of earth and altar,
    Bow down and hear our cry.
Our earthly rulers falter,
    Our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us,
    The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
    But take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches,
    From lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches
    That comfort cruel men,
From sale and profanation
    Of honour and the sword,
From sleep and from damnation,
    Deliver us, good lord.

Tie in a living tether
    The prince and priest and thrall,
Bind all our lives together,
    Smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation
    Aflame with faith, and free,
Lift up a living nation,
    A single sword to thee.

GK Chesterton

St Saba - Paul's history?

5 December was the feast of St Saba

St Saba 

Sabbas the Sanctified

or is Paul's surname linked rather to: St Sabbas the Goth

St Sabbas the Goth

In any event,

Sancta Maria. Ora pro nobis!

Sancti Saba et Sabbas. Orate pro nobis!

Omnes Sancti et Sanctæ Dei. Orate pro nobis!

A subitanea et improvisa morte. Libera nos, Domine!

Ab insidiis diaboli. Libera nos, Domine!

A morte perpetua. Libera nos, Domine!

Peccatóres. Te rogamus audi nos.

Ut inimícos sanctæ Ecclésiæ humiliare dignéris. Te rogamus audi nos.

Ut omnes errántes ad unitátem Ecclésiæ revocare, et infidéles univérsos ad Evangélii lumen perducere dignéris. Te rogamus audi nos.

Ut ómnibus fidelibus defunctis réquiem ætérnam donare dignéris. Te rogamus audi nos.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. Parce nobis Domine.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. Exaudi nos Domine.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. Miserere nobis.

 for the full Litaniae Sanctorum

Another anniversary - 50 years since Sacrosanctum concilium

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 2nd Vatican Council document Sacrosanctum concilium.

Here are three different takes on what has happened since that day. This will not be a universally held view but I believe we, the whole western church, was completely dudded by what we were given.

New Liturgical Movement: Is Your Liturgy Like What Vatican II Intended?

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2013/12/is-your-liturgy-like-what-vatican-ii.html#.Up7TxOJCrK0

Fr Z: 50 years today: Bugninicare

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/12/50-years-ago-today-bugninicare/  (Fr Z must be having a really bad day)

Rorate Caeli:

50 years of Sacrosanctum Concilium and what the Council has wrought "The Destruction of the Roman Rite"

 http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/12/50-years-of-sacrosanctum-concilium-and.html

 This:

 

playing pseudo-novel self-centred (immanentist?) games in a building purposely built to lead us to a transcendent worship of the eternal God

or this:

 

Despite the less than transcendent architecture the form and disposition is focussed on the transcendent and the true relation of creature to Creator. The old, tried ways, made new in each generation.

Ecumenism: The Betrayal of the Martyrs and the Missionaries

Today is the start of Advent, and I am looking forward to Christmas and all that it represents. However at Mass this morning my mind wandered and I had an attack of Thygoism. I became depressed at the state of the Church, of the pervasiveness of error amongst its people, including so many Priests and Bishops. Not the very holy Priest who said the Mass I attended, or my local Bishop, but so many of the others in this country.

Some of the errors are so insidious, and so normative now, that it is very difficult to explain to confused Catholics why these things are errors. A good example is ecumenism. It is just accepted now with no understanding of what it is and how it must be interpreted. But no one warns of the dangers any more.

All I can do is quote a courageous Bishop who dared to write the following after the disaster that was the Second Vatican Council. And these words are also an excellent summary of baptism by desire, a topic which is necessary in any serious discussion about ecumenism:

In this confusion of ideas (in which some Catholics now seem to be quite at ease), there is a tendency especially dangerous to the Faith, the more so because it masquerades as charity. The word which appeared in 1927 during a congress held at Lausanne, Switzerland, would have put Catholics on their guard if they had consulted their dictionaries. "Ecumenism: a movement toward reunion of all Christian churches in a single church." Now it is clear that we cannot combine contradictory principles. We cannot unite truth and error so as to form one thing, except by adopting the error and rejecting all or part of the truth. Ecumenism is self condemnatory.

... Nowadays all religions have the Freedom of the City within the Church. A French cardinal celebrated Mass in the presence of some Tibetan monks, dressed in their ceremonial robes and seated in the front row, bowing before them while a commentator announced: "The bonzes share with us in the Eucharistic celebration". In a church at Rennes, worship of Buddha was celebrated. In Italy twenty monks were solemnly initiated into Zen by a Buddhist.

I could cite endless examples of such syncretism going on around us. We see associations developing, movements being born which always seem to find an ecclesiastic as leader who wants to join in the quest to "blend all spiritualities in love".

... What conclusion can be drawn from all this by a Catholic who sees Church authorities condoning such scandalous ceremonies? If all religions are equal value, he could very well work out his salvation with Buddhists or Protestants. He is running the risk of losing faith in the true Church. This in fact is what is suggested to him. They want to submit the Church to natural law; they want to put it on the same footing with other religions. They refuse to say -even priests, seminarists and seminary professors -that the Catholic Church is the only Church, that she possesses the truth, that she alone is able to lead men to salvation through Jesus Christ. "The Church is only a spiritual leaven within society, but the same as other religions; a bit more that the others, perhaps ... " They sometimes grant it a slight superiority, if you press them.

If this is the case, then the Church is merely useful; she is no longer indispensible. She is only one of the means of salvation.

We must say it clearly: such a concept is radically opposed to Catholic dogma. The Church is the one ark of salvation, and we must not be afraid to affirm it. You have often heard it said, "Outside the Church there is no salvation" -a dictum which offends contemporary minds. It is easy to believe that this doctrine is no longer in effect, that it has been dropped. It seems excessively severe.

Yet nothing, in fact, has changed; nothing can be changed in this area. Our Lord did not found a number of churches: He founded only One. There is only one Cross by which we can be saved, and that Cross has been given to the Catholic Church. It has not been given to others. To His Church, His mystical bride, Christ has given all graces. No grace in the world, no grace in the history of humanity is distributed except through her.

Does that mean that no Protestant, no Muslim, no Buddhist or animist will be saved? No, it would be a second error to think that. Those who cry for intolerance in interpreting St. Cyprian's formula, "Outside the Church there is no salvation," also reject the Creed, "I confess one baptism for the remission of sins", and are insufficiently instructed as to what baptism is. There are three ways of receiving it: the baptism of water; the baptism of blood (that of the martyrs who confessed their faith while still catechumens) and baptism of desire.

Baptism of desire can be explicit. Many times in Africa I heard one of our catechumens say to me, "Father, baptise me straightaway because if I die before you come again, I shall go to hell". I told him, "No, if you have no mortal sin on your conscience and if you desire baptism, then you already have the grace in you" .

The doctrine of the Church also recognises implicit baptism of desire. This consists in doing the will of God. God knows all men and He knows that amongst Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists and in the whole of humanity there are men of good will. They receive the grace of baptism without knowing it, but in an effective way. In this way they become part of the Church.

The error consists in thinking that they are saved by their religion. They are saved in their religion but not by it. There is no Buddhist church in heaven, no Protestant church. This is perhaps hard to accept, but it is the truth. I did not found the Church, but rather Our Lord the Son of God. As priests we must state the truth.

But at the cost of what difficulties do people in those countries where Christianity has not penetrated come to receive baptism by desire! Error is an obstacle to the Holy Ghost. This explains why the Church has always sent missionaries into all countries of the world, why thousands of them have suffered martyrdom. If salvation can be found in any religion, why cross the seas, why subject oneself to unhealthy climates, to a harsh life, to sickness and an early death? From the martyrdom of St. Stephen onwards (the first to give his life for Christ, and for this reason his feast is the day after Christmas), the Apostles set out to spread the Good News throughout the Mediterranean countries. Would they have done this if one could be saved by worshipping Cybele or by the mysteries of Eleusis? Why did Our Lord say to them, "Go and preach the Gospel to all nations"?

In our modern Church you never hear these warnings about ecumenism. The ecumenism embraced by the majority of ignorant Catholics is a betrayal of the martyrs, of missionaries, and of Our Lord.

I suppose my wandering mind has led me to St Stephen, and it is OK to think of this Saint at the start of Advent.

The Abuse crisis, and the Ostrich land of the Australian episcopate and its lay apparatchiks

Was this read out to you last Sunday? :

http://cathnews.com/images/documents/media/131112%20TJH%20Council%20Statement%20of%20Commitment.pdf

better than this arrogant statement of a year ago: http://www.sydneycatholic.org/justice/royalcommission/Royal%20Commission%20Bishops%27%20Response%20November%202012.pdf

The priest who read it where I went to Mass, who I consider to be a very saintly man, was obviously very pained by it and his distress at the monstrosity of the crimes and the poor response, and the damage to the mission of the Church were palpable. More so than for any bishop I have heard speak of it in this country I have to say.

And still what seems lacking is an owning of this by those who are actually in ‘leadership’ – quickly the statement slips to ‘the Church’ as if we were all party to these decisions and actions.

And still no material sign of repentance – bishops and priests should do public penance, and if the laity choose to follow their ‘leading from the front’ well and good but enough of this Black Adderish – “behind the front, 40 miles behind the front”

And then this from Francis Sullivan:

http://www.tjhcouncil.org.au/media/42843/131120-Media-Release-TJHC-calls-on-all-Catholics-to-take-responsibility-for-Church-response-to-sex-abuse.pdf

as Australia Incognita has said many times “they just don’t get it”

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/breaking-up-club-can-we-really-do.html

 

 

Is this Hymn Heretical?

The famous hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country" is often sung at Remembrance Day services in Commonwealth countries. The words were written by Cecil Spring-Rice in 1908, and the music is by Gustav Holst who adapted music from a section of Jupiter from his suite 'The Planets'. Holst harmonised the tune to make it usable as a hymn, and it was first published in 1921.

The first and second verses are usually taken to refer to the United Kingdom and the sacrifice of those who died during the First World War. The third verse is a reference to heaven, and the final line is based on Proverbs 3:17.

I have always loved the music, and admired the clever lyrics. I believe Remembrance Day services are very important and the sacrifices of fallen soldiers, especially ordinary decent men thrown into wars, deserve to be honoured.

However, I am no fan of the British Empire, and I despise their monarchy and their ruling class. I have always been uncomfortable with the 'religious love' for Britain in this hymn. Only recently I learned that this hymn had been described as "totally heretical" by the Anglican Bishop of Hulme because in his view the hymn placed national loyalties above religious ones and promoted an unquestioning support of governments. Perhaps it takes a heretic to know a heresy, but I think the Bishop of Hulme has hit the nail on the head. He has well described why I have always been a bit uncomfortable with this hymn.

The middle verse is often omitted because it is regarded as "inappropriate". There is another clue in this omission: the government wants unquestioning loyalty but not a clear reminder of the consequences, of "the dying and the dead" in wars in foreign countries.

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,

Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;

The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,

That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;

The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,

The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I heard my country calling, away across the sea,

Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to me.

Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,

And round her feet are lying the dying and the dead.

I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns,

I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;

We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;

Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;

And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,

And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

There are a number of different versions of I Vow to Thee My Country on YouTube, including this typical British pomp and ceremony version, with Royalty, without the middle verse:

 

New Categories for Thygocanberra

I have created twelve (yes 12!) new formal categories especially for Thygocanberra:

1. The Moon
2. Ducks
3. Hockey Sticks
4. Heresy
5. Apostasy
6. Schismatics
7. ACT (Grand Duchy)
8. Crime & Punishment
9. Elephants
10. Liturgical Music
11. Men in White Coats
12. Little House on the Prairie

Steak Knives? Yes, THERE IS MORE. I will undertake to write a post in each of these twelve categories within three months if PythonMagus does the same!