The Sad Legacy of the Vatican II Church

I was thinking about going to see my sister for a few days. Frederick, MD is halfway on the two hour journey to her home. We've met in Frederick before and walked the Cross Creek path which is lovely and level. So I was looking at restaurants in the area where we might stop after hiking and before going back to her place.

Monday Morning Musing on Peace of Soul

What is one of the most important goals for the Christian striving to do God's will? ALWAYS maintain peace of soul. We all desperately need it, but how many are willing to do the hard work to achieve it.

The first step in examining anything is to understand what it is. So what exactly is peace of soul? When I have a question about faith, I often turn to Fr. John Hardon, that holy Jesuit who went to his eternal reward in 2000. I'll offer some of his insights from a sermon on Peace of Soul:

Remember when bishops took a firm "tone" defending the truth? Let us pray for its return!

You can view the full 25 minute episode from which the short episode was taken below.

Taking Sides, The Duty We Cannot Avoid

“Refusing to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision.  It is a silent acquiescence to evil.  The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” 

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

What are the “great moral issues” we face today? 

Th Devil's Advocate Needs to Look at This One! Fulton Sheen and Teilhard de Chardin: Strange Bedfellows?

Teilhard de Chardin

I've read many books by Fulton Sheen and watched a number of his old TV shows from Life is Worth Living. Much of what he's written is beautiful, insightful, and thought provoking. But one thing completely baffles me -- his fulminating admiration for Teilhard de Chardin. 

What got me thinking about this was a sermon I listened to from Pentecost Sunday contrasting the "Apostle of Rome," St. Phillip Neri, and Chardin, the "Apostle of Modern Thought," Chardin's story is creepy to say the least.

In his writings he describes an encounter in the desert with "The Thing" that sounds similar to the encounter Mohammed had in the desert with an angel, a dark angel for sure! As described, the event bears NO resemblance to any encounter with Christ any saint has ever described. I'm even curious as to whether the "companion" Chardin mentioned was a "spirit guide." Here's how Father described it in his sermon contrasting Chardin's bizarre encounter to the mystical union between St. Philip Neri and Jesus:

If a Bishop Dies on the Border Between New York and Illinois, Where Should He Be Buried?

When John Paul II visited New York he asked to meet
Fulton Sheen. A few months later the archbishop died. 

With the on-going controversy over where Fulton Sheen's final resting place should be, New York City or Peoria, I've been thinking about him a lot lately. At least a dozen of his books line my bookshelves and I've actually read most of them, some even twice. His Life of Christ is a masterpiece! What a work to bring one to a greater knowledge of and friendship with our Lord and Savior! His autobiography, Treasure in Clay, would be a great ordination gift for a young priest on fire with love for Christ. Walking in Sheen's footsteps would lead any priest or layman straight to the tabernacle. I love to watch Sheen's old TV series, Life is Worth Living, on YouTube. It's a good antidote when life seems anything but!

The fight over Sheen's body seems ludicrous to me. If New York isn't interested in pursuing his cause for sainthood and Peoria is, why the argument? Does New York want him at St. Patrick's for Big Apple Catholic tourist appeal? That's not even where he wanted his remains. In his will, he identified a cemetery in Queens.

Are You the Cause of Turmoil? Why Not?

Most Catholics I know are very familiar with the expression, “Peace be with you.”  And most of us have the impression that we are to bring harmony to the experiences in our lives, in our families, in our careers, in our civic discourse.  We have given ourselves permission to be nice and not ruffle feathers. 

Somehow we pass over the scripture text where Christ tells us living our faith and not just wearing the name badge may very well cause dissension in our own families and with our friends and acquaintances.  We are told to expect these conflicts and to prepare ourselves for them. 

Matthew 10:34-36 says:

The Music That Kills the Soul

More mementoes from the "Religion of Peace"

The website for Gatestone Institute posted a story today about the tragedy in Manchester England I think is worth reading.  It mentions the fact Muslims hate the "music of the west."  Here is the link to that story.

I am a free market capitalist.  I don't believe in censoring literature and music except in extreme cases such as public defilement of religious icons for the sake of sensationalism.  Other than that, I think the consumer should be free to enhance or destroy his life as he chooses.  If you want to fill you head with mushy erotic novels instead of history and philosophy and religion, you have the free will that allows you to do that and a government that makes it possible.  If you want to listen to discordant filth set in motion with vulgar costumes and dancing, that too is your choice. 

Am I "Filled with Anger and Hatred?"

I sometimes get accused of being filled with anger and hatred in the comments section of the blog. Why? Because I (and my colleagues) dare to say that some things are evil. That proves we are (take your choice) hate-filled, intolerant, mean, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and (as one critic described me) an ugly cow. (Moooo!)

That didn't make me angry actually; I just laughed. But, yes, I do get angry:

• about laws that allow "doctors" to drag little babies out of the womb into the birth canal, stab them in the back of the neck and suck out their brains before delivering their poor, little, lifeless bodies. 

Fulton Sheen: "We Live by What We Slay" - A Reflection on the Mass

Traditional Latin Rite Sacrifice of the Mass

I recently read The Ottaviani Intervention, compiled by Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, Antonio Cardinal Bacci, and A Group of Roman Theologians (who are not named). It is a Critical Study of The New Order of Mass, written shortly after the close of Vatican II.
Because I came into the Catholic Church in 1968, I barely remember attending mass at which the Novus Ordo mass was not in use. I did not realize at the time the change was made that I was witness to a great change in the Church, a change that would reverberate throughout the world causing more damage than we dare to imagine.

Summer 2016 Newsletter Now On-Line

If you like the blog, visit the website. The Summer 2016 issue of the Les Femmes newsletter is now the website and click on newsletter on the sidebar for the latest on-line issue. Here's a bit from the lead article, The Answer to All Our Problems? Jesus and Mary:
on-line. Just go to

The world faces problems these days on an apocalyptic scale. Wars and terrorist attacks, devastating natural disasters, increasing plagues like AIDS, Zika, Lyme, and antibiotic resistant super-bugs, not to mention the anxiety, stress, and depression that accompany modern living. And, of course, we all have relationship challenges among our families, friends, and acquaintances. I’d like to suggest in this article that the answer to all our challenges is simple – increasing devotion to the Real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist (and, of course, the rosary) and devotion to Our Lady. But I’m going to focus here on the Eucharist, the bread of angels. 

Fulton Sheen's Cause for Beatification Moves Forward

And isn't it appropriate that this champion of life's miracle involved a stillborn infant (born September 2010) who showed no signs of life coming back after 61 minutes during which time the parents were pleading for the baby through the intercession of Cardinal Sheen.

Three and a half years later the little one shows no ill effects from the ordeal. Read the press release here and pray that his cause advances quickly.

Cardinal Sheen spoke often about the world approaching midnight  -- a terrible disaster. I heard him speak of the clock nearing 12:00 near the end of his life, but it was a constant theme. In fact, in 1943, he gave a talk called The Approach of Midnight. It was a prophetic talk. Listen to it, especially his description of the decline of education and see our own culture with its Common Core, its gay-straight alliance clubs, its Planned Parenthood style promiscuous sex education. He saw it all coming and continues to warn us. Cardinal Sheen, please intercede for our poor country, especially the young who are so scandalized by false education that force-feeds pleasant lies. Here's just a portion of Cardinal Sheen's address:

We Need More Good Men to "Curse Scoundrels!"

“It's not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”   G.K. Chesterton: Illustrated London News, March 14, 1908

This Chesterton quote reminds me of Fulton Sheen's essay, A Plea for Intolerance:

America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance-it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded. 

Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory.

Goodbye! Bad Men: Rochester Bishop Clark Resigns

Earlier this month, Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester reached mandatory retirement age and submitted his resignation. Thank God! Let's pray the Vatican accepts it quickly. During his 33 year tenure in Rochester, the bishop advanced homosexuality, supported dissenter theologians like Charlie Curran, promoted women's ordination, welcomed Dignity Masses, destroyed vocations, and closed about half the Catholic schools in the diocese. Talk about decimating the faith! The Vatican ordered him to remove the imprimatur from a sexuality handbook, by Fr. Matthew Kawiak that distorted Church teaching. A timeline of some of his other disgraceful acts is posted here. And another post here. One of the most public scandals to his discredit involved Fr. Jim Callan at Corpus Christi. Callan regularly "concelebrated Mass" with Mary Ramerman for years, Clark finally ordered him to stop and Callan was excommunicated when he left taking much of the parish with him. While the bishop claimed he took action on his own, Callan publicly stated that he believed the bishop was sympathetic and was ordered to act by then Cardinal Ratzinger at CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

 An atheist could hardly have done more to damage the Church in Rochester than Bishop Clark over the past three decades. And to think he took over the seat of one of the greatest modern bishops in America, Fulton Sheen. You can read about Clark's exit  and the "indelible mark" he left in the local secular paper. The gushing article basically canonized him. But at least a few faithful Catholics like Jim Likoudis were quoted as well. As for the "indelible mark" Clark leaves, it is a deep and ugly scar on the Church in Rochester. Orthodox Catholics are shaking his dust off their feet as he wraps up his Beavus and Butthead show. They are praying for a true shepherd as a replacement. May God give them one in line with a former bishop of Rochester, a true shepherd.

And here's a video about that true shepherd. Please pray for Fulton Sheen's cause for canonization and ask his intercession for the restoration of the faith in Rochester.

Are Catholics Too Nice? When giving the "benefit of the doubt" serves the enemy...

Bishop Fulton Sheen is famous for saying that the problem in our culture isn't too little tolerance, but too much, too much tolerance of sin. Let's get serious. As Michael Voris says, the Church is full of rebels who are willing to just dismiss the truth in favor of their own distorted and wicked point of view. It's time to take the pitchforks to these enemies within. If they won't teach and defend Catholic doctrine, they have no place in "educating" anyone about the faith. No tolerance for ear ticklers!

Picture your granddaughters in burkhas

There is a strong likelihood that my great grandchildren will live in a Muslim world. The video below should give Christians pause. The baby boom generation has failed to followed the biblical admonition to be fruitful. Instead they have contracepted themselves to the point of near extinction. And their children have imbibed their anti-life mentality from infancy.

What does this mean? There is a very real danger that my great grandchildren may never experience a Christian culture. Already Muslims outnumber Catholics around the world and many countries of Europe have more mosques than churches. The de-Christianization of society will have very serious consequences when Sharia Law rules the land, a law that does not respect human rights or the dignity of women. It's somewhat ironic to think of feminists who demanded the "freedom to choose" death for their children living as second-class citizens in an Islamic state. Will they be forced to wear burkhas?

I believe the solution to Islamic Jihad is the same one that Mary brought to Mexico to transform the bloody Aztec nation - conversion. Fulton Sheen believed Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Fatima, would be the channel of grace to bring the Muslims to Christ. Let us pray for that outcome. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.