The Prophecies of St. Malachy, the full rundown of popes matched with the alleged prophecies of this fascinating saint -- who many believe, in describing the one who would be current Pope as 'from the glory of the olive,' foresaw Benedict XVI as he foresaw so many others. The little book shows the accuracy of many predictions and the beautiful pattern woven by Heaven in the form of our popes -- a pattern highly discernible once you read this amazing collection, which we submit for your discernment. CLICK HERE |
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BEYOND SACRILEGE, ATTACKS ON CHURCH NOW AIMED AT ITS MOST PROFOUND LEVEL
We know that the Church warrants a degree of correction, but we're not too happy with the growing whiff of persecution. It's one thing to protest something like the priest-abuse scandals -- which were beyond upsetting -- but in the air is the wafting hint that enemies of the Church are ramping up an attack on our foundational spirituality -- on the Church's very mystical qualities, at the most profound level.
A sign of our times is that we have become accustomed to sacrilege.
Still, the recent assaults should raise eyebrows. In December, during the feast of Guadalupe (when the Virgin's appearance to St. Juan Diego near Mexico City is celebrated so reverently by millions), the cover for the Mexican edition of Playboy was that of a woman who was barely-clad but for a veil that more than hinted at the Blessed Mother. Playboy apologized, in a way that begged sincerity.
That was followed by an equally brazen smearing of the Virgin in Chile, where a prominent fashion designer dressed up busty models like the Blessed Mother for a catwalk show at a Santiago nightclub. (A conservative group tried unsuccessfully to block it in court, sensing that matters were wandering toward the realm of the dangerous).
This all came after a Minnesota professor had publicly announced that he was desecrating the Eucharist (to show us how superstitious we all are), and a young man appeared on YouTube destroying Hosts by boiling or frying or flushing them. No more simple diatribes against Christianity: now they were attacking the basic mystical Presence.
Meanwhile, in North America, in Chicago, vandals defaced a Guadalupe-like image of Mary that appeared, perhaps miraculously, under a highway viaduct, drawing a devil's face and horns over it (and causing officials to have to paint over the whole thing: a direct physical assault on what many took to be a supernatural manifestation).
Note how Guadalupe is so often a subject of attack. Note the brazenness.
And it all came after the now-traditional Yuletide thefts or defacements of Nativity figures (too many to count). Around the world, statues are being damaged while atheists advertise on buses and denigrate Christianity.
The media and leftist officials can pass up no opportunity to throw bricks at Catholicism.
In Los Angeles, a U.S. attorney has launched a federal grand jury investigation into how Cardinal Roger M. Mahony handled (or mishandled) allegations of priestly abuse.
Don't get us wrong: what clerics did -- and the ensuing cover-up -- were horrific. To call it poor judgment is to be kind.
But the energy behind pursuing the hierarchy seems curious. (In the blog under an article in the Los Angeles Times about Mahony were comments -- please excuse us for this -- on how, in the bloggers' words, "Mahoney makes me sick. He just shuffled off the problem instead of mandating therapy for the offenders and protecting the children. Mahony will burn in hell!" or "It's about time Mahony goes down for his three decade long involvement in the priest sex abuse cases and his involvement in the cover up of these illegal activities. The Catholic community in Southern California has had enough of this money-hungry criminal" or "This is a start, but true justice would come when the entire hierarchy -- right up to and including the Pope -- is behind bars.")
Should we be concerned about that increasingly common level of vitriol?
If not the Blessed Mother, the target is the Vatican. Earlier this week, certain Jewish leaders -- including the chief rabbi in Israel and Holocaust-activist Elie Wiesel -- disparaged the Church because it lifted the excommunication of four traditionalist St. Pius X Society bishops who had broken with Rome long ago, one of whom denies the existence of Nazi gas chambers. Wiesel went so far as to claim that the affront to Jewry was "intentional."
To immediately attack the Pope before knowing if Benedict even was aware of that one bishop's extreme viewpoints indicates a readiness to attack with any pretext and is worrisome. (A pontiff can't be expected to know the idiosyncrasies of all 4,800 bishops -- especially four who have not even been part of the Church for decades.)
Know this: the Catholic faith, down through the ages, has been persecuted in the same way and with the same intensity that Jews have been persecuted. You can start in Rome in the first century. It withstood that. It will withstand what is to come.
We believe that prayer defeats any adversary. We also don't believe in name-calling. We don't believe in throwing stones back at Mr. Wiesel. We will throw back the ultimate weapon: love.
You are forgiven, Mr. Wiesel. We do not lump you with those who destroy Hosts and deface the Blessed Mother.
But there is certainly the spirit of anti-Catholicism in the air, and that reduces to the spirit of anti-christ.
For Catholicism -- however much they want to deny it -- is Christianity's Mother Church. As ardent secular humanists again ascend to power, those who hate the Church will be emboldened.
Fear? There is nothing to fear.
Although evil has been unleashed against it in places like Chicago and Mexico (and Chile and Minnesota), we know what Christ said and what He said was that the Church is a rock against which hell can never prevail.
[resources: Why is that in Tradition? and Prayer of the Warrior]
[see also: Vatican warns against 'Christianophobia', Cardinal: someone at Vatican didn't look into bishop's past, 'Thousands' of Catholic schools close to protest Indian massacres, Priest describes Indian ordeal, Continued horror at monastery attack, and What Pius X bishop had to say about September 11]
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[Recent e-mail comments unedited:
"Your recent reflections on
the "Anti Christian cultural storms" which are engulfing us made me think of
something I came across. Many of the people attacking Holy Mother Church are
former Christians.
Recently you had a link to
Cardinal Newman's Advent sermons on a site run, I think, by Randy England. I
went to another site to get the date of those sermons and found a quote from a
Church of England bishop that was appended to Sermon 4.
In 1835 Cardinal Newman gave
4 Advent sermons.
Here's a site with the
sermons under "The Patristical Idea of Antichrist":
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/arguments/index.html#antichrist
As a postscript to the 4th
sermon there is a quote from Bishop Horsley (Church of England) attached by
Newman, I presume. Bishop Horsley would have written what Newman quotes in the
1890s. This appendix is not insignificant. Newman clearly thought it important
enough to include it as an illustration of his own reflections.
The Horsely quote will take your breath
away.
My own observations - Sr. Agnes of Akita, Japan and Sr. Lucia and Sr. Faustina
all say that our Savior is mustering up an army of victim souls - those who will
unite their sufferings to His in reparation through prayer and sacrifice for the
sins of others to appease the heavenly Father's wrath at the immorality and
outright rejection of him.
Might this be the "sackcloth ministry"
that Horsley predicted 200 years ago was to come?
Additionally, Cardinal
Ratzinger a long time ago made a comment that the Church will have to realize
that it is going to be much smaller. Why? The quote below, I think, explains
why this might be true.
Faithfully, Alan
[begin excerpt of Sermon 4] POSTSCRIPT
"THE above expositions of the teaching of the Fathers on the subject treated, were preached by the Author in the form of Sermons in Advent, 1835, and are illustrated by the following remarkable passage in a letter of Bishop Horsley's, written before the beginning of this century; vide British Magazine, May, 1834.
'The Church of God on earth will be greatly reduced, as we may well imagine, in its apparent numbers, in the times of Antichrist, by the open desertion of the powers of the world. This desertion will begin in a professed indifference to any particular form of Christianity, under the pretence of universal toleration; which toleration will proceed from no true spirit of charity and forbearance, but from a design to undermine Christianity, by multiplying and encouraging sectaries. The pretended toleration will go far beyond a just toleration, even as it regards the different sects of Christians. For governments will pretend an indifference to all, and will give a protection in preference to none. All establishments will be laid aside. From the toleration of the most pestilent heresies, they will proceed to the toleration of Mahometanism, Atheism, and at last to a positive persecution of the truth of Christianity. In these times the Temple of God will be reduced almost to the Holy Place, that is, to the small number of real Christians who worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and regulate their doctrine and their worship, and their whole conduct, strictly by the word of God. The merely nominal {108} Christians will all desert the profession of the truth, when the powers of the world desert it. And this tragical event I take to be typified by the order to St. John to measure the Temple and the Altar, and leave the outer court (national Churches) to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles. The property of the clergy will be pillaged, the public worship insulted and vilified by these deserters of the faith they once professed, who are not called apostates because they never were in earnest in their profession. Their profession was nothing more than a compliance with fashion and public authority. In principle they were always, what they now appear to be, Gentiles. When this general desertion of the faith takes place, then will commence the sackcloth ministry of the witnesses ... There will be nothing of splendour in the external appearance of their churches; they will have no support from governments, no honours, no emoluments, no immunities, no authority, but that which no earthly power can take away, which they derived from Him, who commissioned them to be His witnesses.'—B. M., vol. v., p. 520.
June, 1838" [End excerpt]
Statue on famed 'apparition hill' vandalized
india
72-year-old priest fights off robber
Man who stabbed priest 'inspired' by DaVinci Code
Horror video: pro-abortion protesters attack young praying Catholics
Fire at Fatima shrine
Frog
Priest organizes nun beauty contest
Memo to Cardinal Mahony: blog reveals strange workers at cathedral
This was reported by
German witness and journalist Alexander Smoltczyk - Vatican journalist of the
anticlerical German boulevard magazine 'Der Spiegel' - on September 14th.
After the end of the papal mass by Benedict XVI and the exodus of most of the
clergy, some mass attendees approached the credences in front of the table
altar, upon which countless sacred vessels containing the remaining consecrated
Sacred Hosts from the celebration were placed. The sacred vessels were
unguarded. Also patens with more consecrated hosts on them were situated on the
credence tables.
Mass attendees [tourists? pilgrims?] threw themselves towards these credences
and without any scruples starting flling their bags and pockets and coats with
the remaining Sacred Hosts, for all to see, Smoltczyk. "They stuffed their bags
with the holy communion fully and uninhibitedly."
According to the version of the journalist merely one bishop intervened. But
only after another couple of [alleged] pilgrims had started to dip their fingers
into chalices filled with remaining precious blood, in order to dab their
foreheads with the contents. "Non! Non! That is not right!" - the bishop
reportedly said.
At the same time - behind the back of the intervening bishop, and after
countless sacred hosts had already been stolen by alleged pope devotees - an
artificially blonde lady took place upon the large wooden throne, where few
moments before pope Benedict XVI had been seaten, and had herself photographed
in different poses.
Female scouts from northern Spain posed around the altar, as if they were
drinking wine around a standing table of a tapas bar.
In the meanwhile, German journalist reports, "an elderly and frail looking lady
succesfully attempted to secretly hide all kinds of used sacred linen into her
bags."
And while unimaginable sacrileges against the eucharist (left totally vulnerable
by the clergy who left the site in a hurry to follow the papal event into the
centre of the town) took place and theft was also only few ft. away, devotees of
the pope started kissed and affecting everything that the "very Holy Father" had
just fifteen minutes before walked upon or been seated upon.
"This scene was unbelievable, I am still appalled",
Smoltczyk writes, while
rubbing his eyes.
END
Photographs of the sacrileges and theft. (Not
caught in action, but the situation is represented, including the huge unguarded
chalice with precious blood in order to dip the hosts
Churches reconsecrated after horrific vandalism
The article about the Los Angeles Cathedral gift shop and Cardinal Mahony is disturbing and made me wish to relate an experience I had the first and only time I had contact with Mahony. As an alter boy for Our Lady of Victory Church in Fresno California, I was allowed to miss class and help with the mass and special services such as funerals during school hours. One such funeral was for a retired State Senators wife and a special priest was coming to perform the funeral in place of Father Desmond our pastor. It was unusual and I thought a little odd, but what does a teenager know or care about politics. I had served for several funerals and knew the routines and was considered the senior alter server, which is why I was chosen. I had meet several visiting priests in the past and all were kind and pleasant people to work with and help. I was told a special priest from the Bishops office would be conducting the funeral. This was before Roger Mahony was made an auxiliary Bishop in the Fresno Diocese. Meeting Mahony was a completely different experience and one that stuck with me. He was not kind and became angry at the simplest of things and for details that were not mistakes but simply not the way he wanted them. He was bossy and arrogant and I am surprised I remember that about him. He was there for the politics involved and the people attending the funeral mass. When the public showed up his angry face and composure changed to another person who smiled for the first time that morning. I had worked in the past with wonderful religious people and they had a spirit about them. Mahony gave me the creeps and did not give me that same spiritual sense. When I heard that he had been made a Bishop and than Cardinal I always think back to that first impression of meeting him. In the media he comes off as a politician and not a defender of the faith and the Church. It made me wonder if the Pope would have chosen this man for Cardinal if he really knew him? The Pope can’t know everyone and has to rely on what others report about individuals. I do not trust Mahony and would question all his appointments and Church activities. Humility is not a word I could associate with him from my experience and it may be judgmental and incorrect, but I felt a need to share this experience for some reason.
My name is Julie Pratt Vrana and my mother is Flavia Pratt in Lake Charles, La. Both of us attended your seminar in St. Augustine a few years ago. Mike, I need help. A few weeks ago my husband and I celebrated our anniversary by going to a small town in Texas that was known as the town “that time forgot”. Well, unbeknownst to us it was also the most haunted small town in Texas. We ended up sleeping in the most haunted room in the hotel (the only room available and we did not know what was going on). We encountered several “spirits” and something passed thru my husband. Yesterday at church I asked my parish priest for special prayers to be said over us and he looked at me like I had monkeys coming out of my ears. Can you recommend someone in the Dallas area that understands all of this and will pray over us? I am afraid to approach any more priests. Mom and I thought maybe you could recommend someone. Thank you so much for your help. Spirit Daily is still my home page and I go there first thing in the morning and several times during the day. Thank you so much for all that you do!! Julie Vrana 972-727-0912
Churches reconsecrated after horrific vandalism