Rainbow Priests?

[It turns out that the story about the Vatican approving rainbow vestments was basically the french version of an April Fool's joke. The diocese of  Saint Brieuc-Treguier explains the "joke" on its website. Mainly the fabricated details include things like being used on feasts of "St. Noah" and "St. Abraham" which don't exist." However, the truth is that rainbow vestments were introduced at World Youth Day in 1997 in Paris without anyone's approval at all.  So the fact is, rainbow vestments are being warn at Mass and it's no joke. They may not be as glaring as the picture below, but you'll get the picture in the video. So the pope and the Vatican apparently never approved of rainbow vestments. The French bishops made the decision all on their own. So you may still want to write to the Congregation in charge of the liturgy and complain about the practice of priests wearing vestments with the symbol of "gay" pride. It's no joke!]

You're sitting in the psychiatrist's office doing a word association test. He says rainbow. What's the first thing you think of? I'll wager that the rainbow flag of "pride" is likely to pop into your head and you are likely to respond with: homosexual, gay, gay pride, or a similar association. Somehow I doubt the first thing you will think of is Noah and the ark and God's covenant with his people.

The fact is that the gays have co-opted the rainbow to make it a symbol of shame that carries a strong subliminal (Heck! what am I saying, there's nothing subliminal about it!) message of homosexual pride and approval of the gay lifestyle. And yet the Vatican has approved rainbow vestments at the urging of the French bishops. Which is interesting considering that the Church in France is almost moribund. Maybe their enthusiasm for the rainbow reveals why.

Atila Sinke Guimarães writes about another pagan symbol rejected by the Church for centuries because of its association with sin:

Even if the introduction of the rainbow as a new liturgical color were well intentioned, I do not recognize in this measure the bi-millennial wisdom of the Catholic Church. Let us look at how she acted in the past in face of a similar symbol.

History teaches us that when the Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire had assumed the rose as one of the symbols of its decadent customs. Indeed, in the orgies dedicated to Venus, Bacchus, Mercury or Saturn, there was a display of the most sophisticated pleasures known at that time: refined food and wines for the palate, oils for the body, perfumes for the smell, music and singing for the ears. To these luxuries another was added, considered top of the line. The banquet rooms were designed so that from time to time rose petals would fall from the ceiling over the guests during the feast. The ensemble was meant to give the impression they were living in an anti-chamber of Olympus.

Immorality and the most refined Roman good taste served by their more advanced technology became symbolized by the rose.

What did the Catholic Church do regarding the symbol of the rose? She did not use it in her symbolism until the memory of the Roman Empire and its orgies had completely disappeared. Only after the barbarians had ravaged the Western Roman Empire did the Church use the symbol of the rose in her devotions and works of art. Then, Our Lady became honored as the Rosa Mystica, the cathedrals erected stain glass windows shaped as grand roses, and on their columns the rose became a frequent ornament. Following this example in the temporal sphere, we find noble houses placing roses on their coats of arms and gentlemen offering roses to lady as a sign of their respect.

It took centuries for the Church to purify the symbol of the rose, but she did it perfectly. To the point that until a little before Vatican II, it was common for a religious woman, in the ceremony of taking her solemn vows, to wear a crown of roses, a symbol of her virginity. From being a symbol of the Roman orgy, the rose became the symbol of Catholic virginity. What an extraordinary victory of the Church!

Now the opposite is taking place. Instead of avoiding a symbol that has become universally identified with the worse sin against nature, the Conciliar Church jumps in and assumes that symbol as its own. (Read more....)

A few weeks ago, the French bishop of the Diocese of Evreux turned up in Thiberville to carry out his symbolic murder of the traditional parishes in the area and remove their faithful pastor of 20 years. (Fortunately his decision was overturned.) The bishop, a modernist, was wearing rainbow vestments. What can the pope be thinking to allow this abomination? I will NEVER attend a Mass where the priest is wearing rainbow vestments. In the U.S., only a homosexual or homosexualist would perpretrate such an abomination on the people of his parish.

Write to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which approved the change, to protest. The address is Piazza Pio XII, 10, 00120, Vatican City, Europe. It's time for faithful laity to take back the church.

More on the French Revolution at Thiberville in Normandy

Fratres has two videos this morning from the battle at the Thiberville parish in the Diocese of Evreux. They're in French, but you don't need to understand the language to see what's going on. The bishop comes in wearing rainbow vestments! (Take that you orthodox Catholics. We are an inclusive church. I am a canon for the Anglicans and bosom buddies with my gay friends.) Note the older woman who puts on a stole - one of the bishop's supporters, no doubt, who probably showed up for the event.

This bishop is either a totally clueless fool, in which case he is incompetent to be bishop, or he is an evil man with an evil agenda which also should preclude him as bishop. Please, somebody pressure him to resign for "health" reasons. (Mental health perhaps?) No wonder some saints say the floor of hell is littered with the skulls (or mitres) of bishops.

Spare us, O Lord!

Pray for the pastor, Fr. Francis Michel, who appears to be truly the father of his people. And thank God for the parents who removed their children from the bishop. They are teaching their children to discern the spirits. Blind obedience to bad bishops is no virtue! Teach your children that a roman collar doesn't guarantee a holy heart.

Bishop of Evreux Attempts to Suppress Motu Proprio in Normandy

Reading this article about the Catholic bishop of Evreux in Normandy, France reminded me of the French uprising in the Vendee during the French Revolution. Of course, the Catholics of the Vendee were rising against the anti-clerical relativism of the Reign of Terror.

Unfortunately, today's reign of terror in the Church is often led by members of the hierarchy determined to enshrine the spirit of the world on our altars. Here in the U.S. we are certainly no strangers to this clerical abuse. The rolecall of bishop-barbarians includes cardinals of the most powerful dioceses. Cardinal Bernardin was a champion at undermining the faith while pretending to defend it. Cardinal Mahony walks in his footsteps, though less nimbly. He is a hatchet man compared to the scalpel-wielding Bernardin.

I had to laugh when I got to the part of the story about the bishop saying Mass while his congregation and altar servers disappeared to protest his abuse of the Mass. They simply removed themselves to another Church where the bishop was denied entry to the sanctuary. And I'm delighted that the pastor is fighting. Obedience is not an absolute when the bishop violates his authority.

Perhaps we should imitate our brothers and sisters in France. If the bishop or priest is messing with the Eucharist and undermining the faith, walk out and keep walking until you find true worship. And certainly, stop financially supporting these faith wreckers!

The faith is virtually dead in France. You would think this bishop would be calling in a priest who is so successful to get instructions on how to save his other failing parishes. But destroying the faith seems to be what many of these men are about. And perhaps he follows the same strategy of his U.S. brothers (like Gumbleton, Clark, Sullivan, etc.) who suppressed vocations to stir up support for the ordination of women. I found an interesting press release that shows the bishop is a "progressive" when it comes to ecumenism and also indicates the miserable status of his diocese where lay people are taking over many parish functions because of the lack of vocations.

Pray for the lay revolution in Evreux. The pastor is fighting the bishop's action in canon law. Let's pray the bishop gets the Bishop Martino treatment. We'll see if it's reserved to the orthodox defending the faith.