Asking the Intercession of Pope Leo XIII for Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo is in the hospital receiving treatment for a lesion on his lungs. After surgery the doctors reported that they removed a portion of his lung and the tumor which was cancerous. Every faithful Catholic should be praying for him: for his physical healing and for his spiritual healing. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J. always said, the spiritual miracles are most important and, frankly, more miraculous than the physical ones. And wouldn't it be a miracle if Leo had a Damascus moment while he's recovering and decided to become a zealous defender of the faith like his predecessor, Leo XIII. 

Sunday Meditation: Don't Let the Priest Pirates Steal the Treasures of the Church!

Pirate in priest's clothing.

Today at our SSPX chapel in Linden, VA we celebrated the Feast of St. Pius X from September 3rd in the traditional calendar. As patron saint of the Society, that was appropriate. St. Pius X certainly represents a man for our season in the Church when modernism has perverted so many Catholics and is bringing many to the brink of hell.

In his encyclical Pascendi, Pius X called modernism the "synthesis of all heresies." Compared to the numerous documents by Francis he was concise, describing modernism and its errors in only 57 paragraphs. Compare that to the long-winded documents by Francis filled with ambiguity, confusion, and error: Amoris Laetitia -- 325, Laudato si -- 246, Fratelli Tutti -- 287, Querida Amazonia -- 111,  Christus Vivit -- 299, etc. 

O Lord Give Us Holy Priests! Preserve us from the wolves supporting AUSCP

Examine this picture carefully.  It's from the website of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) who just ended their annual confab in San Antonio on the very fashionable River Walk. See any roman collars? See many young men?  The theme was "Sex and Spirituality Pastoral Considerations." I had to laugh when I saw that, but not surprised. Dissident and heretical clergy always seem to have one thing on their minds: sex, sex, and more sex. 

O Lord, Give us Many Holy Priests!

The Communion of the Apostles
 Luca Giordano (Italian (Neapolitan), 1634–1705)

A question came up the other day that elicited a difference of opinion between myself and someone with whom I was chatting. He believed that a priest's Mass was not valid if he said it while in the state of mortal sin unless he was repentant and had the intention of going to Confession as soon as possible. I thought that was inaccurate and part of the Donatist heresy. So I looked it up and here's what I found:

Sunday Meditation: Pray for Priests!

 When we travel I always check the local parish’s website to make sure it’s not nuts. If they have an “All Are Welcome” sign on the site, a certain sign of homosexual enablement, we won’t go there. We look for an active pro-life group, Legion of Mary, adoration, more than one hour on Saturday for Confession…well…you get the idea. This morning we headed for the local parish which looked good. The photo on the website showed a beautiful sanctuary with the tabernacle in the center and the parish had a school and nothing outrageous on the website.

Do You Know Where Your Pastor Is and How He's Spending Your Money?

Pray for your priests through the
intercession of St. Jean Vianney

Well, I'm back from retreat and among the hundreds of emails was the one below. I've deleted the name of the priests and I won't identify the diocese, but I think it behooves folks to ask yourselves how your pastor is running the parish and how he's spending YOUR money (which is given to do God's work!). Is your pastor, on the parish level, doing what men like Bransfield and McCarrick did on the diocesan level? Is he living like a king on the sacrifices of the folks he considers patsies in the pew? Do you recognize your pastor in this description below?

 Dear Mary Ann,

It was well known that [my previous pastor] had a full time cook and housekeeper and that he hosted monthly get together lunches at the rectory for his priest friends. Wine and dine on a weekday when they should have been at work. My parish is unique in that its rectory is [not on the church grounds].  No one sees who is coming and going. If the pastor goes home for lunch and doesn't return nobody at the church knows where he is or what he's doing.

RIP, Fr. Benedict Groeschel

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, Rest in Peace

I met Fr. Benedict only once, at the March for Life. He was standing on the curb and our group went over to say hello and thank him for his ministry, especially his preaching. His response, "I'm like a nickelodeon. Just put in your nickle and it comes spilling out." What a funny, charming man. He will be sorely missed. Fr. Benedict, pray for us. And let us pray for him as well. A priest once said to me, "There is no one deader than a dead priest" because a priest has no family of his own. So let us never forget to pray for our dearly beloved priests and for the repose of their souls. Which reminds me of several who have been important in my life who have gone on ahead:

Fr. Hugh Monmonier, the priest who witnessed our marriage, pray for us, dear father on our 45th wedding anniversary today.

Fr. Robert Bradley, S.J., who was my spiritual director for a time, pray for us, Father, I think of you whenever we travel to Texas. We miss you!

Bishop Thomas Welsh, who blessed our house in Alexandria and was always so gracious to me, pray for us. 

Fr. John Hardon, S.J., who gave me advice about the Les Femmes apostolate and was a retreat master for me on two blessed occasions, pray for us. We pray for your beatification.

Msgr. Richard Burke who was so supportive of Les Femmes in the early days, pray for us. 

Be assured, dear spiritual fathers, that we pray for you as well.

Words of Wisdom from one of my Favorite Bishops

"The danger in our day is not a shortage of honey."

That's for sure! Bishop Vasa wrote this in a blog post about the patron of parish priests, St. Jean Vianney. Here's more:

Indeed it comes as no surprise to any pastor that St. John Vianney was severely abused and derided because he called his people to chastity when debauchery was the norm, to sobriety when drunkenness was rampant, to holiness when secularity was much more popular. 

Because he loved, however, he did not cease to challenge sinfulness and call his people to repentance. His determined love for souls cost him dearly. I strongly suspect that if St. John Vianney himself were in many of our American parishes, there would be an abundance of letters from concerned parishioners about the direction in which he was taking the parish. 

This in no way implies that letters about priests to chanceries all across this country are not sometimes warranted. It also in no way implies our priests are comparable to St. John. What it does imply is that most of us do not respond well when the sinfulness of our own lives is challenged. That goes for all of us. 

And yet the old adage about the need to “hate the sin but love the sinner” makes perfect pastoral sense, but the situation is often made very difficult when the sinner has such a solid affection for and attachment to and even defense of the sin that any attack on the sin—not the person, but the sin—is deemed an unjust and indefensible attack on the sinner!

In some ways the adage has been revised for American sensibilities so that its present rendering might go something like: “Love the sinner, and you do that by condoning the sin.”

Read the rest here and don't forget to pray for your priests today.

Are We Surprised? Fr. Guarnizo Suspended

Fr. Guarnizo has been suspended. Surprise, surprise. See below the letter to the the priests from the Archdiocese announcing the suspension. One more good priest bites the dust. Now, does anyone suppose that Barbara Johnson, the lesbian Buddhist, has received a letter from the Archdiocese telling her she should not receive Communion in the Catholic Church?

Terry at Abbey Roads posted the suspension letter yesterday and today he posted a quote from Our Lady's apparitions at Akita that predict the suffering of her faithful priests. I'm adding to his quote. Mary told Sr. Agnes:

"The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord....The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them."

For those unfamiliar with Akita, the warnings of what will happen next are terrifying.

"As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests."

The Blessed Mother also told Sr. Agnes to recite this prayer with her sisters:

"Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom."
"Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls."
"Most holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your Special Child. Amen."

It is long past time to seriously fast and pray for the conversion of the world. When the message of Fatima was ignored, the result was a World War II, a conflict that claimed the lives of  50 - 70 million people, 2.5% of the world's population at the time. Read the signs of the times and take seriously the call to conversion. Meanwhile, pray for priests, all priests, but especially those unjustly persecuted by their bishops.

Les Femmes Summer Issue is Online

If you're interested in checking out the most recent issue (Summer) of the Les Femmes newsletter, you can read it online here. The lead article is about a priest in Hampton, VA who massacred the liturgy when we visited earlier this year. Thankfully, we saw little of this liturgical violence on our cross country trip this Fall, but it still survives in some places. Why the laity tolerate it is beyond me. I can only think several generations of bad catechesis and long exposure to the circus antics of showmen priests (and perhaps the drumbeating in the sanctuary) have turned their brains to mush. Pray for priests who are jeopardizing their own souls and the souls of the faithful by such scandals.