A New Buzz Phrase for the Lexicon of Catholic Liberals: The "Francis Magisterium"

Just tell those recalcitrant bishops in the U.S. it's the "Francis magisterium" and they better obey!

What's a liberal pope and his liberal "magisterium" to do?..

...When his critics question his authority over innovations he's introduced into Holy Mother Church including pagan idols like Pachamama.....

WHAT TO DO?

....When his critics express horror at the company he keeps and question his giving a Vatican voice and platform to those who promote abortion, contraception, homosexuality, population control, eugenics, etc.....

Quotes to Contemplate -- Add your own in the comments section.

What the so-called "Age of
Reason" ushered into the world!

"From 1789 onward the left has ushered a great and devouring hatred into the world, drawing from a bottomless well of implacable resentment and anger that produced the Terror in the final decade of the 18th century (the "Age of Reason," they call it), the many murderous totalitarian regimes in the 20th that killed hundreds of millons, and now in the early 21st century a mass mania supported by lies, unreason, hysteria, and the denial of objective human and metaphysical reality -- oddly, by people who idolize science and technology." [They are] "driven by metaphysical hatred",,,and have "created a wasteland and called it Paradise." 

            Chilton Williamson in Chronicles, November 2018

"To borrow from St. Augustine, God made us to make the times, not the times to make us. We're the subjects of history, not its objects. And unless we make the times better with the light of Jesus Christ, then the times will make us worse with their darkness."   

                                   Archbishop Charles Chaput 

                                   Pio Laghi Lecture March 27, 2019

CANCEL THE YOUTH SYNOD! BISHOPS "HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIBILITY!"

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia,
a bishop with some common sense!

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia has called for cancellation of the Youth Synod scheduled for October. Thank God for a voice of reason! At a recent conference he said, “I have written the Holy Father and called on him to cancel the upcoming synod on young people. Right now, the bishops would have absolutely no credibility in addressing this topic!"

What an understatement! Not only that, but it's become clearer and clearer that the agenda for these events is to undermine Church's teaching on a whole panoply of issues. Journalist Edward Pentin who reported on the two synods on the family in 2014-2015 pointed that out at the alternative meeting in Dublin last week during the World Meeting on the Family. (What sad times we live in when orthodox Catholics have to stage alternative meetings to address the dissent and error of the "official" events.) Here's part of what he said in his talk:

Monday Headlines and Action Items on Church Issues

1) The left is attacking Bishop Paprocki for upholding Catholic teaching on gender insanity. Don't just stand there, Catholics, do something to defend this courageous bishop!

Thank Bishop Thomas Paprocki who is being viciously attacked by the left for denying funerals to "married" gays.

After you sign the petition, why not send a direct message or call. Contact information for the diocese is here.  I just sent an email thanking the bishop and telling him I'm having a Mass said for him. I also signed the petition. Let's all offer a rosary today for this real shepherd! Sadly, we don't have that many.

Archbishop Chaput's "Strangers in Strange Land"

With his new 2017 book, Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World, Archbishop Charles Chaput has brought to the forefront of our minds just how far the liberal atheistic view of life has taken hold in the world, and especially in our own home country, the United States. We have recognized, to be sure, the steady deterioration of Christian life and perspectives in our world, but it was mostly relegated to the back recesses of our mind rather than our recognizing it as to the current depth of its penetration into the daily activities of the world in which we live. 

Archbishop Chaput brings to the forefront the tremendous damage already done to our country, ever since the mid-1960s, and the Second Vatican Council. If one compares the pre-1965 era with the post-1965 era, the effect is almost beyond belief as to the dramatic erosion of what was then a deeply religious country into a new Sodom and Gomorrah, where Christianity is laughed at, ridiculed, and totally dismissed as to its truth claims. Perhaps we are heading into the end times.

The LETTER TO DIOGNETUS, which Archbishop Chaput cites in his penultimate chapter, was a highlight of his book, because it was written about Rome when paganism was strong and Christians were new to the religious scene. We can learn much from this history about how to survive in a post-Christian world.

Archbishop Chaput advocates that Christians need to build the communities, the friendships, and the places where we can joyfully live out our Faith. As Chaput emphasizes: “If we truly love God, we’ll evangelize the world He made, and whose soul, He created us to be. After all, we’re disciples and friends–not just servants but friends–of the Lord of History who died and rose again to save the world.”

Please, Archbishop Chaput, Don't Kill the Messengers

Philly archbishop labels two Catholic groups 'destructive'

What's more "destructive?" Filling the Organization for the World Meeting of Families with pro-aborts...or exposing the scandal.

It was demoralizing to read this article.

Great Column on Archbishop Chaput

The new leader of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to William Saunders is an honest bishop speaking the truth in charity:

Charles Chaput is one of the kindest, gentlest men you can imagine. He does not thunder, he does not condemn; rather, he simply and clearly tells it like it is. He repeats the teaching of the Church, a teaching that is meant for the common good and which benefits us all, a teaching about fundamental human rights. Read more here...

Thought for the Day from Archbishop Chaput

"Pick up your cross and follow me."

"The world urgently needs a re-awakening of the Church in our actions and in our public and private witness...We need really to believe what we say we believe. Then we need to prove it by the witness of our lives. We need to be so convinced of the truths of the Creed that we are on fire to live by these truths, to love by these truths, and to defend these truths, even to the point of our own discomforts and suffering. We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. Our work is to make God real; to be the face of his love; to propose once more to the men and women of our day, the dialogue of salvation...The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the cross. Our lives must become a liturgy, a self offering that embodies the love of God and the renewal of the world... Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other -whatever the cost- so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time."

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Head of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado

Two Archdioceses, Two Policies; Which One Upholds the Catholic Faith?

"One will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops."
                                 The Blessed Mother to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan

The battle is joined with some bishops defending the faith and others undermining it. I blogged recently about Cardinal O'Malley's policy to normalize same-sex parenting, implicitly recognizing gay marriage and families as equal to heterosexual families. It's a disaster for the faith in Catholic schools that has wideranging implications.

Another bishop came to an opposite conclusion, one more in keeping with the truth. Archbishop Chaput of Denver will NOT allow the children of same-sex parents in Denver's Catholic schools. Archbishop Chaput explained his reasons that are self-evident to any real Catholic:

Most parents who send their children to Catholic schools want an environment where the Catholic faith is fully taught and practiced.  That simply can’t be done if teachers need to worry about wounding the feelings of their students or about alienating students from their parents.

Can the problems related to admitting the children of homosexuals be stated any more clearly? And why would lesbian and gay parents want to put their children in such a situation of conflict except to demand that their lifestyle is just as good as any other? For homosexual couples this isn't about the children; it's about legitimizing their lifestyle. Read the complete article here.

Archbishop Chaput discusses the case in Boulder of the lesbian couple with children in school

Catholic schools: Partners in faith with parents
by Archbishop Charles Chaput
Denver news media have reported in recent days on the case of two children of a lesbian couple in Boulder. The couple was informed by Sacred Heart of Jesus parish school that the older child, whom they were enrolling in kindergarten for next year, would be allowed to attend kindergarten but would not be able to continue into first grade the year after. Their younger child would be welcome to finish preschool, but not continue into kindergarten. Many have wondered why. Sacred Heart of Jesus parish has borne the difficult publicity surrounding this issue, but archdiocesan policy was followed faithfully in this matter, and the policy applies to all Archdiocese of Denver schools. (Read complete column....)

The Devil You Say!

Many today don't believe in the existence of the devil. It's convenient not to believe because if the devil doesn't exist there isn't any hell. So you can believe in a nice fluffy God who looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy and who has his angels making tea and cinammon rolls in preparation for your arrival.

Well, one U.S. bishop isn't afraid to talk about the devil. Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput speaking in Rome recently said, “It is very odd that in the wake of the bloodiest century in history – a century when tens of millions of human beings were shot, starved, gassed and incinerated with superhuman ingenuity – even many religious leaders are embarrassed to talk about the devil. In fact, it is more than odd. It is revealing.

“Mass murder and exquisitely organized cruelty are not just really big 'mental health' problems They are sins that cry out to heaven for justice, and they carry the fingerprints of an Intelligence who is personal, gifted, calculating and powerful.... If we do not believe in the devil, sooner or later we will not believe in God.”

The Archbishop focused on the responsibility of believers to evangelize the world. Why, to make sure as many people as possible are spared "the loss of heaven and the pains of hell."

Read more here....

Years ago when I was on a weekend retreat, I spent a late night in the stairwell with another retreatant who didn't believe in the existence of hell. She did after our long conversation. But it isn't surprising that people have stopped believing. I attended a funeral of a priest who committed suicide a number of years ago. The homilist, a senior priest in the diocese cast doubt on the possibility that anyone goes to hell. I was shocked because he never asked for prayers for the poor dead priest! I wanted to scream, "Did you care about your friend? Ask people to pray and fast that he experienced final repentance."

Do a Bible search with a concordance. Jesus talked about hell (Gehenna) more than almost anything else warning people NOT TO GO THERE.

At Fatima the Blessed Mother showed the three shepherd children a terrifying vision of hell. Was she a child abuser? NO! She is good mother who warns us about danger. Those three little ones engaged in heroic sacrifices to, as Jacinta said, "save poor sinners from hell."

St. Robert Bellarmine said that priests should preach often on the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. We would all do well to reflect on them often. Ultimately, our elternal salvation is the only thing that matters. What a tragedy to lose heaven for the world.