Sunday Meditation: What would Pope Leo IV think of the Crisis in the Church?

 

As I posted yesterday I'm going on a silent Ignatian retreat this week from Sunday evening (tonight) until Saturday morning, July 25th. I've scheduled some articles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but will be completely off the internet starting this evening. 

I won't be moderating comments either. You are welcome to leave them, but they'll sit in the combox until I return on on July 25th. I will be praying for all my readers while I'm on retreat. Please pray for me as well.

For those who read regularly you've seen my open letter to Bishop Michael Burbidge about the treatment of the laity in the decree of Pope Leo and the explanatory note from Cardinal Fernandez. I mailed the letter on Monday, July 13th, but delayed publication out of courtesy for the bishop. Then I scheduled the letter's publication on Friday, July 17th. 

If You've Never Watched The Catholics, Now is the Time!

In 1972 Brian Moore wrote a short novel titled Catholics about a remote abbey on an island off the coast of Ireland. [online here] It's the year 2000 and the monks continue to offer the Latin Mass after Vatican II and even after Vatican IV. The Protestants have long been acclimated to the new Church and the new faith. The move now is to incorporate the Buddhists and a conference is scheduled in which the head of the order is participating. 

The monks have become an embarrassment and stumbling block to the new church. Ever since a television crew televised the Mass thousands of Catholics from all over the world flock to the liturgy offered on the mainland. The crisis comes when the head of the order in Rome sends a young priest to examine the abbey and order the monks to immediately adopt the new mass. There are no more private confessions. No one is required to believe that the bread and wine really become the Body and Blood of Christ at the consecration. No clergy are allowed to resist. They are ordered to conform.

Termites in the Church...

During my middle school years, my parents rented a lovely home on Juniper Lane in Falls  Church, Virginia. The street got its name from an enormous Juniper tree that occupied a plot along the road. I think it was in the center and the road went around it on both sides, but that memory may not be accurate. At any rate, it was an impressive sight! Much more than the picture above.

Of Clerics in Black and Small, Black Hive Beetles

My husband and I are beekeepers. During the Spring we check the hives regularly to try to prevent swarming and keep pests under control. On our last inspection we noticed a significant small beetle infestation in the hives. These creepy little black bugs eat the honey, lay their larvae in the cells and can become so great a nuisance that the bees give up altogether and abscond abandoning the hive to the invaders. When we see them, we need to take action. I've ordered traps that I'll fill with a solution of apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, and soap. Hopefully they will be attracted to the scent. They supposedly like fermented things. The scent attracts them and they fall into the traps and drown. Good-bye beetle problem. At least that's the hope.

Religious Schizophrenia: The Battle in the Church between Truth and Authority!

When one examines a crisis, it's important to know exactly what that crisis consists of. We know there's a crisis in the Church; you'd have to be brain dead not to realize something isn't right. But what is it? Is the crisis a fight over different liturgies? Is that really the central issue? Between those nostalgic for the old ways versus those progressives who want what they believe to be a more accessible church with windows open to the world? Or is it primarily about Vatican II?

"The Heresy of Modernism Turns Minds into Oatmeal." Padre Peregrino Explains it all for You.

It's a sad reality today that many in both secular and religious society are "weaponizing language." We see it in the Democrats who call anyone supporting particular policies of Donald Trump Nazis, homophobes, misogynists, gestapo, etc., etc. But in the Church this weaponized language is used primarily against only one group -- those who support Sacred Tradition and embrace the Traditional Latin Mass and the traditional sacraments and rites of Holy Mother Church. We are rigid, schismatic, insane, trapped in the past, etc. You know the drill. And while the pope will meet with material heretics, pagans, pro-aborts, clowns, etc., those who defend Sacred Tradition are treated like lepers. Give us bells to ring to warn all the contracepting, aborting Catholics they need to run for the hills to prevent contamination.

But here's the secret. All these charges are bogus.

Thank God for Bishop Strickland and His Defense of the SSPX!

Bishop Strickland: The Church is facing a ‘real emergency’

Every Texan knows this story:

Long before we knew about politics, before we knew the arguments, before we knew how to quibble over details, we were taught something in school that shaped our bones. At the Alamo, there came a moment when there were no more letters to send, no reinforcements coming, no negotiations left to try. The enemy was at the gates. Surrender had been demanded. And everyone knew what surrender would mean.

A Bishop for Our Time: Henry Edward Cardinal Manning - Lecture 1

I recently came across the quote above from Cardinal Manning. Frankly, I never quite trust anything I see in a Facebook meme, so I looked for the source. The cardinal's statement appeared in a collection of lectures:

THE PRESENT CRISIS OF THE HOLY SEE

TESTED BY PROPHECY.

Four Lectures

BY

CARDINAL HENRY EDWARD MANNING, D.D.

LONDON :

Ecumenism Rules: No Titles for Mary as Coredemptrix and Mediatrix

I double post these days because of Blogger's censorship. Check out my free Substack website.

I'm reading the recent document on the Blessed Mother released by the Vatican Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith. If you haven't heard of it yet, this document crushes the movement to declare Mary Coredemptrix and Mediatrix of All Graces. How low that office has fallen under its new prefect, the scandalous Cardinal Fernandez of kissing fame. 

Obviously, my expectations were not high considering the source, and it immediately became apparent why the Queen of Heaven is getting short shrift. The second paragraph of the document makes it abundantly clear what drives the dicastery: "a particular ecumenical effort." 

Our Lady of Good Success and her Warning to the World

What if someone predicted accurately what would happen next week or next month. If it was something common, "The sun will rise next Thursday at 5:30 a.m." of course you would not be impressed. We all know that, short of the end of the world, the sun will rise. [For those literally minded, we are well aware that the sun doesn't "rise" but the earth rotates giving the illusion of the sun rising as different parts of the earth are exposed to her rays.] But suppose the person told you something unusual, that seemed unlikely, and it came to pass. Perhaps they predicted a tragedy was about to take place, a train would be derailed or you would be diagnosed next week with a terminal disease despite the fact that you had no symptoms and seemed to be in the pink of health. 

What Can We Do to Respond the Crisis in the Church?

The Crisis in the Church series is well worth watching. This is one of my favorite episodes.

 

Cognitive Dissonance: Pope Francis is Trying to Impose it on the Church!

Francis imposes cognitive dissonance on the flock by abusing his authority!
Blind obedience is no virtue. Know what true obedience demands. 

Most people have heard of the psychological term, "cognitive dissonance."

What is it?

Here's a concise definition: "psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously."

Is the Canonization Process Infallible?

Today is the feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, a Capuchin friar who died in 1619. He had a great gift of preaching and also spoke Hebrew, so Pope Clement VIII asked him to preach to the Jews of Rome. Think of that! A pope who thought Jesus was serious about baptizing men of all nations and asked a brilliant saint to bring the Jews to Christ. As an important figure in the counter-reformation, St. Lawrence established Capuchin friaries in Germany and Austria that brought many Protestants to the faith, perhaps some of my own ancestors. He also had great devotion to St. Joseph. St. Lawrence wasn't canonized for over 250 years. Do you really think that the Vatican II popes should have been rushed to canonization, especially in view of the crisis in the Church which, one can reasonably argue, they aided and abetted?

Are canonizations infallible? 

Is the SSPX Position Really "indefensible?" Part 1

Cardinal Wojtyla and Cardinal Slipyj both ordained clandestinely
without permission from the Vatican violating canon law.

I'm currently reading SSPX Indefensible posted by Dom Dalmasso of the Logos Project written by Noah and Wesley Weidig who  were raised in the SSPX. The document is really just a reiteration of points made by Dalmasso, John Salza, ex-32nd degree Mason, Robert Siscoe, and Andrew Bartel, all of whom came out of the SSPX and now attack the SSPX as schismatic and a danger to the faith.

France, the Eldest Daughter of the Church, is in Flames! And Churches are Being Handed Over to the Devil.

As persecution against religion increases, will we respond like the early Christian martyrs?

Can anyone with eyes not see the crisis in the Church? And can anyone doubt that when there is a crisis in the Church, there's a crisis in the secular world? What come first: the crisis in the Church or the crisis in the world. I think Pope Pius V (+1572) put it correctly. "All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics." What did Jesus say about the lukewarm? He promised to "vomit them out of my mouth." 

Is There a Crisis in the Church? Duh! Is there a Law of Gravity?

What's more effective - hacking at the branches or getting to the "root of the problem?" 

Let's ask some questions relevant to the situation Catholics are facing today?

The First question is fundamental. Is there a crisis in the Church? If you claim there isn't, you need to explain the reason for these and other sad realities:

Guest Post: A Paradoxical Reversal - The Crisis in the Church

by Edward Kryn

As a theologian Pope Benedict XVI looking at the fruits of the SSPX (Matt. 7:15-20) and bearing in mind his preoccupation with the concept of the BRIDE FALLING AWAY from the institutional church, felt the need to lift any possible excommunication of the four SSPX bishops once he realized the SSPX had saved the Traditional Latin Mass and therefore the BRIDE represented as the church during 50 years of experimentation in the church of Vatican II. All this remembering that other traditional orders like the FSSP, ICKSP and Priestly Union of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, sprang from the SSPX saving the Traditional Latin Mass that was protected by Pope Pius V bull Quo Primum with incurring the wrath of Almighty God should anyone try to counter Pius V.

Guest Post: It's Time to Restore All Things in Christ

The motto of Pope St. Pius X was "To restore all things in Christ." Bring it on, Lord!

By Greg Diefenderfer

Looking back over the past 120 years at the tumultuous 20th century, two inflection points seem to stand out. One was World War I, which began 30 years after Pope Leo’s locution in 1884 and 3 years before Fatima. “The Great War” started the carnage that would eventually kill over 100 million souls. The second was the middle of the 20th century, when, seemingly out of nowhere, western Christian society started to go crazy. Compare anything you wish – music, TV, movies, education, clothing and dress, politics, economics, sexuality, your choice – and everything started deteriorating. We went from Doris Day and Frank Sinatra to Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix, from Leave it to Beaver to All in the Family. And so on. What happened?

Two Clear-Sighted Articles on Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX Controversy

Editor's Comment: What confusing times we live in, eh! As someone once said to me, "We are all doing our lousy best." While I would modify that to say, "People of good will are doing their lousy best," I think it is a true statement as we travel through this "valley of tears." Let's face it, we're in chaos!

"The Gathering Storm" and Fr. Tom Collins' Reaction to It

Summer Squall, Winslow Homer 1904

Editor's note: Check out the LifeSiteNews article linked below and Fr. Tom's commentary on it that follows. Both the secular and Catholic world are in serious crisis. We need to pray like everything depends on God and work like everything depends on us. Let us defend the faith, speak the truth, and pray for our enemies and all those who hate us. God is faithful, so don't be anxious. Foster peace of mind! Twelve apostles changed the world. Can Catholics today not hasten the reign of Christ the King through prayer and sacrifice?