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 :

The Coming of the Antichrist: Cardinal Manning -- Lecture 4

This post examines the final lecture by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning about the Crisis in the Holy See. Remember, he was writing near the end of the 19th century during the nationalistic upheavals in Europe, but history tends to repeat itself. Much in these four lectures can easily apply to our own time although the threats are coming from within the Church these days as much as outside.  Check out my previous posts and read the entire document. The cardinal's prose is easy to understand and he turns often to the doctors of the Church and to well known theologians. 

Lecture 1 - Introduction to the Crisis: the Revolt

A Bishop For Our Time: Henry Edward Cardinal Manning -- Lecture 3

You can read my posts on the first two lectures by clicking on the links below. Cardinal Manning's lectures are particularly appropriate as we end the liturgical year. I hope you'll read them in toto and not just my excerpts. He was a prophet and much of what he describes is directly applicable to our own time.

A Bishop for Our Time: Henry Edward Cardinal Manning -- Lecture 2

To read my post on Lecture 1 go here.  

On to Lecture 2!

In his second lecture on The Present Crisis in the Holy See, Cardinal Manning focuses on the nature of the Antichrist. At the time, some writers claimed that the Antichrist would not be an individual person, but a corporate group or spirit. Refuting that belief, the cardinal looked to the number of Apostles, Fathers of the Church, etc. who disputed that interpretation. He quotes St. Robert Bellarmine saying, “All Catholics hold that Antichrist will be one individual person.”

Interestingly, Manning offers the opinon of many scholars that the Antichrist will come from the Jewish race:

...the Fathers, with unanimous consent, teach as undoubted, that Antichrist will be a Jew.2 Ribera repeats the same opinion, and adds that Aretas, St. Bede, Haymo, St. Anselm, and Rupert affirm that for this reason the tribe of Dan is not numbered among those who are sealed in the Apocalypse.3 Wiegas says the same, quoting other authorities.4 And this will appear probable, if we consider that the Antichrist will come to deceive the Jews, according to the prophecy of our Lord: “I am come in My Father's name, and you receive Me not : another will come in his own name, him you will receive;” which words are interpreted by the Fathers with one consent of the false Messias, who shall pass himself off upon the Jews as the true. And this, again, is the unanimous interpretation of the Fathers, both of the East and of the West, as St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Ephrem Syrus, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory Nyssen, St. John Damascene, and also of St. Irenaeus, St. Cyprian, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine.https://www.britannica.com/topic/spiritualism-religion

Guest Post: Clerical Sex Abuse and Suicide: The Toxic Legacy -- Part 2: Suicide of Predators

Rev. Alfred Bietighofer killed
himself in 2002 during treatment
at the infamous St. Luke Institute
in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Sex Abuse Victims and Clerical Suicide —

A Study of the Toxic Legacy of Clerical Molestation  

By Randy Engel

Read the first part of this article here.

The Suicide of Clerical Sexual Predators

Following close on the heels of the suicide of victims of clerical sex abuse, is the tragedy of Catholic priests and religious (male and female) involved in homosexuality and pederasty who take their own lives. The rising tide of suicide among clerics, especially those involved in the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults has become a serious problem not only for the Catholic Church in America, but also abroad including Ireland, Australia. Belgium and Poland.  

Was the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima a Warning for the End Times?

On October 13, 1917, Our Lady made her final visit to the Cova de Iria in Fatima, Portugal. She produced the promised miracle. Not only did the sun dance, but it appeared to plunge toward the earth. Many of the terrified witnesses dropped to their knees and began to confess their sins and make a fervent act of contrition. The sun did not hit the earth that day, it returned to its place in the sky. But was that solar event a warning that a future chastisement would come through the activity of the sun?

Remember Lepanto on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Why do we celebrate the Holy Cross? In ancient Rome, the cross was a symbol of shame, the instrument of capital punishment. It would be like our celebrating the exaltation of the electric chair. It sounds crazy when you think of it in that way, doesn't it? And yet, the instrument of torture and death, becomes for the Christian the reminder that Christ not only overcame death, but, in doing so, glorified the very instrument used to kill Him. Cardinal Jean Danielou, theologian and historian, reminds us of the reality of the cross we carry. It is a "feeling of being torn asunder...this inability of our heart to carry within itself simultaneously love of the most holy Trinity and love of a world alienated from the Trinity" which is "precisely the death agony" of Jesus, "an agony he calls on us to share." Yes, we are called to love a world that hates God.

This week brings specific reminders of that agonizing conflict as we reflect on the vicious hatred that resulted in the 9/11/2011 atrocity and Wednesday's murderous attack on embassies in Libya and Egypt. How does the Christian react to such evil?