SIR PETER'S 'MORTAL ENGINES' (Letter to Dom Post, Nov 27)

“God knows” – as Sir Peter Jackson aptly notes – how much we ‘need’ escapism, as in his latest movie, Mortal Engines.

If only we knew how to pray contemplatively, God would transform our mundane and/or horrific lives into a divine ‘fantasy’ which would obviate any need for Sir Peter’s movies. 

Time spent in prayer has this truly awesome advantage over time spent in cinemas: the ‘divine comedy’ of the spiritual life is actually for real and has the potential, shown by Mother Teresa, to make the world a beautiful place.

By spending precious time and millions of bucks fantasising – not just in movies but on smartphones and computers and drugs– fostering dissatisfaction with our quotidian existence and shirking kindness, we actually increase ‘the world’s woes’. 

And create an audience of course, for Sir Peter Jackson.

IN THE US, FR BRYAN BUENGER WILL HAVE THE SUPPORT OF HIS BISHOP

To comment please open your gmail account, or if you have my email address, please email me as the two who comment below have done.



I wanted to escape to St Joseph's Dannevirke today, to Father Bryan Buenger's patch, even though in our parish it was First Holy Communion Day. (To be precise it was, we were told, their 'First Eucharist'. Really? Had none of these children ever attended Mass before? Things are even worse than I thought.)

Oh yes, they are worse than I thought. I've just learned that Cardinal Blasé Cupich, cheer-leader for the disgraced (but not even yet laicized) homosexual predator former Cardinal McCarrick, has been named by Pope Francis to head the synod in February on prevention of abuse of minors. 

But wait, I hear you say, didn't Cardinal Cupich present 'Cardinal' McCarrick with a prestigious award for 'outstanding work' in the Church, at a time when everyone in the US knew - including Cupich - that McCarrick had been abusing seminarians at his notorious beach house for years? Yes he did. But now we're told by Cupich that it ain't necessarily so. It mightn't have been abuse. It seems we should make a distinction between abusing minors and abusing seminarians, because as Cupich has said, the latter 'could be consensual sex'.

Oh well, that's all right then. So it's not sinning seriously (mortally) against the Sixth Commandment as long as another, consenting, adult is sinning with you. 

Oh yes it is, but that's not what the Pope's picks for the February synod's steering committee say. Besides pro-gay Cupich - who with another disgraced prelate, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, has proposed that the US bishops should investigate themselves for their sex abuse - there's Malta's pro-gay Archbishop Charles Scicluna, India's pro-gay Cardinal Gracias who calls Church language on homosexuality 'judgmental' and pro-gay Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner, who jesuitically goes all around the houses talking about abuse but not homosexuality, implying that consensual homosexual sex is just fine. That's it.

The wolves aren't just in the sheepfold, people, they're running it. 

No wonder Fr Bryan Buenger, Parish Priest of Tararua in the Palmerston North Diocese, is heading back to the US. I asked him why. He said, "Because there I will have the support of my bishop". 

As a wise, holy priest, he knows that  he needs the protection of a wise, holy bishop. In the US he can take his pick of dioceses which are run by such bishops. 

I had to wait a couple of months to get an appointment to see Fr Bryan, and he sat there on a shabby sofa in the shabby presbytery, coughing and apologizing for his voice failing due to a sinus infection. I thought how cold that building would have been in winter - and by comparison how beautifully the church is appointed, with the reno of the kitchen and meeting space Fr Bryan began and has only just completed. 

It was an enthralling conversation, such as one is rarely privileged to have in this life.

He told me the NZ Diocesan Priests' Assembly in Christchurch was "dreadful" and confirmed, without going into any detail, that yes there had been complaints made against him in Tararua. 

I wonder who those whingeing parishioners think is going to replace him? They might well get what they deserve.

PC says: I escaped to Waipawa. Alas, the heresy followed me. What happened to Fr Buenger is disgraceful. But then, much of the 'Roman' Church in NZ is disgraceful. This beautiful country is a liturgical and theological wasteland.

Anon says: It just gets creepier and creepier every time I open my web browser.  According to the testimony of whistle blower Archbishop Vigano, Cardianl Cupichs' appointment was orchestrated by kingmakers McCarrick (now a totally discredited abuser of children and seminarians), Cardinal Wuerl (forced into retirement by Grand Jury revelations of covering up abuse) and Cardinal Maradiaga (so close to Pope Francis he is known as the 'vice-Pope', and also accused of cover ups).

 

So pro-gay Cupich, who beyond all reasonable doubt knew about McCarrick's trail of sodomy, gets to sit on the organizing committee for the long awaited Synod on clerical sex abuse.  This makes me feel very uncomfortable.

 

And locally, soon Father Buenger will be gone, chased away by complaints and whatever else we are not told about.  I hear he is not the only local priest looking for an escape route back to the home country.

 

Its hard to be Catholic these days, even if I close my web browser.

JESUS DOESN'T 'OVERLOOK' OUR SINS. ANYTHING BUT.

 I sat in the pew this morning with my mouth open, gaping at the priest who was telling us that God 'overlooks our sins'.

He was talking about Zacchaeus, a tax collector and so a public sinner, who was told by Jesus to come down quickly from that sycamore tree, because Jesus was coming to dinner at his place.

Jesus overlooked his sins, said Father, and He made the first move in telling him to come down.

I hate to contradict Father, but in fact it was Zacchaeus who made the first move, by climbing the tree. He wanted to see Jesus.

Far from overlooking our sins, Jesus is deeply affected, hurt and offended by them. To Sister Josefa Menendez of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Spanish mystic of the 20th century, Jesus said, The obstinacy of a guilty soul wounds My Heart deeply (but the tender affection of one who loves Me not only heals the wound, but turns away the effects of My Father's justice).

To Sister Mary of the Trinity, a Poor Clare of Jerusalem, also a mystic of last century, He said, At the least sign of repentance, My Heart is aflame with joy, and I wait with inexpressible love for the sinner to turn towards Me.

And again, to Sister Josefa: I pursue sinners as justice pursues criminals. But justice seeks them in order to punish, I in order to forgive.

I am consumed with desire to pardon …

Poor sinners, how blind they are! I want only to forgive them, and they seek only to offend Me. That is my great sorrow; that so many are lost and that they do not all come to Me to be forgiven.

Obviously our sins are not something to be 'overlooked', either by Jesus Christ or by us. 

ARDERN WANTS PNG WOMEN TO BE 'SAFE'. BUT WHAT ABOUT NZ WOMEN?

Jacinda Ardern certainly has nerve. 

It takes nerve to say a surgical procedure that always specifically means death and generally means  long-term adverse health effects for women is ‘a health issue’.

Then she goes to Papua New Guinea and has the nerve to say, “if you want a country to thrive you look after the women”. She hopes the women in PNG are ‘safe’.

Yet her manipulation of the Law Commission shows she intends her own country to make abortion available right up to birth, meaning premature babies, psychological trauma and breast cancer will be more available too.
.

It just shows you can get away with murder if you smile.

ABORTION AND AUTISM: WHAT'S UP, DOC? (letter to NZ Herald, Nov 15)

I hate to say this, but someone has to.

Autism researcher Dr Hilary Stace doesn’t believe there are more autistic children now than formerly. In the ‘60s in the US, the autism rate was 1 in 10,000. By 2009 the rate was one in 110. Abortion was legalised in the 70s and took off at a similar rate.

At least three studies show that a previous abortion raises the risk of a child developing autism by 30 per cent and the pre-conditions for autism are prematurity and raised maternal age. 

The older the mother, the more likely are previous abortions. Prior abortions boost the chance of extremely prem babies in later pregnancies, and their chance of autism is 25 times higher than at full-term.

 And although I'm reluctant also to raise the bogey of vaccinations, there’s the question of use of aborted fetal cell lines in vaccines and its correlation with the rise in autism. 

Are pharmaceutical companies taking advantage of women in elective abortions, by commandeering their child’s body parts for manufacture of vaccines which research indicates are implicated in causing autism? Are hospital boards colluding with the pharmaceuticals?

Women are not told about these risks. Very powerful vested interests are denying women their right to be informed.

SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH BUYING A RAFFLE TICKET?

You know the feeling. Rushing into the supermarket, Christmas is round the corner, gotta grab the groceries - and your way through the door is morally if not literally blocked by a table, signs and smiling do-gooders, selling raffle tickets.

Catholics do raffles. Big-time. When 'im indoors suggested to our P P that at his 80th birthday bash we run a raffle, P P said, "Oh no, not a raffle! Catholics always do raffles".

And guess what, we did run a raffle and far more than recouped the expense of dinner for 180 guests.

But. Non-Catholics of the committed Protestant variety aren't so 'sold'. In fact, raffles fly in the face of their earnestly held, Bible-led convictions. So in the interests of ecumenism (and selling many raffle tickets), let me explain the Catholic point of view on raffles.

We share the Protestant principles on gambling, absolutely. Protestants may quote bible verses (Proverbs 28:20; Proverbs 28:22; 1 Timothy 6:9-10) to support their opposition to raffling, but when one examines said verses, one finds they are opposed not to raffles but to gambling. 

Raffling a Christmas cake or a hamper or meat voucher (just as a random example) is not gambling. Raffling isn't gambling. Gambling is motivated by a desire for gain, in other words it's greed, which is always sinful. 

But. A Christian of whatever colour must not judge someone who buys a raffle ticket as being greedy. A Christian must assume, in charity, that the buyer is morally motivated, as for example by a desire to give their family a Christmas gift they may otherwise well not receive. For people on a very tight budget, a $2 ticket on a cake buys them a little bit of hope, that they might win it.

Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about gambling, which comes under the Seventh Commandment (Thou Shalt Not Steal): 'Games of chance (card games etc) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others.' 

When you balance the certainty of need for money of a worthwhile charity (Voice for Life Central Hawke's Bay, as just another random example) against the possibility that someone’s gambling habit might be indulged, or that they might be deprived of what is necessary to provide for his needs or others', by spending $2 on a raffle ticket, the latter can hardly be called morally unacceptable.

So relax. Get some change at the check-out and spend that $2 (or $5 or more if you're flush) on Christmas raffles - for a good cause, like Voice for Life CHB as yet another random example - with a clear conscience.

ABORTION'S RISKS PREMATURITY, PTSD, BREAST CANCER (letter published in NZ Herald, Nov 8)

“Abortion law needs to align with the times”, you say. 

So what’s changed since “the debate of 40 years ago”? An unborn baby is still a human life, with the same right to life as his/her mother’s. Women are still uninformed of the health risks of abortion: prematurity in subsequent pregnancies, psychological trauma, increased likelihood of breast cancer.

“The earlier the abortion, the easier for the woman”, you say. Abortion is never ‘easy’ for the woman, and always hard on the baby. It’s not “a health matter”. Its scientifically proven adverse effects on women’s health make it very definitely a sickness matter.

The Law Commission has ignored the weight of New Zealand’s submissions, which overwhelmingly opposed removing abortion from the Crimes Act – under which it has never been a crime for the mother, and rarely for the practitioner. So how can you substantiate your claim that most health practitioners want abortion to be “purely a matter between the woman and her doctor”?

To "align with the times" you should be reporting on the information amassed in the last 40 years on the unborn child and the risks of abortion to women’s health. 

It’s our right to be informed and your responsibility to report that information.

OUR SENIOR PRIESTS HAVE MORE THAN FALLEN FOR THE PROPAGANDA

To comment please open your gmail account. Thank you. Or if you have my email address, use that.



I'm reliably informed that last Friday the Processional hymn sung at the Leavers' Mass for St Peter's College Palmerston North, at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, was 'Underneath God's Beautiful Rainbow'.

Call me old-fashioned, but it took a while for its significance to sink in. I thought at first simply that it was ridiculously puerile for Year Thirteens - why on earth choose it? My informant had told me that when children at the cathedral were taught that song a decade ago or so, no one gave it a second thought. 

And at that, I did. I gave it a second thought. The last ten years have delivered the LGBTQ+ phenomenon. It's been introduced into school sex 'education', symbolized by a rainbow (ironically, the symbol of God's covenant with mankind). Adolescents are now encouraged to question their sexuality - but not surely, in a Catholic school? 

There were snickers during the singing, apparently of approval. And when I stop and think a third time, it's that for the first time, the term LGBT was included in a Vatican document in the recent Youth Synod. 

Now (I'm sounding like a Tv newsreader) to quote Canonist Fr Gerald Murray, "this is a terrible problem for the Church, some leadership are pushing Fr James Martin SJ's line, 'God made you this way'. It's not true. This is the agenda of the world. It's not Christian revelation. It's not the teaching of the Church. 

" 'Inclusive' in the mind of the gay rights activist is, 'grant us same-sex marriage, don't criticize sodomy and then start believing there really are transgenders and bisexuals. It's propaganda."

There's no point complaining to our bishop. Because +Charles Drennan, Monsignor Brian Walsh and Fr Joe Grayland were all there last Friday. They were singing 'Underneath God's Beautiful Rainbow'. They've fallen for the propaganda.


Please pray for our bishop and priests of the Palmerston North Diocese.


A liturgist (or should I say 'terrorist'?) of my acquaintance suggests I'm being unfair to Mons Brian Walsh, in that normally the celebrant at Mass doesn't know what the line-up of hymns or 'songs' (sigh) will be. And as a tyro organist myself, I know that.

But I also know that organists, liturgists and musical directors wouldn't schedule a song like 'Underneath God's Beautiful Rainbow' which for school leavers could at best be described as ridiculous and at worst, heretical, if they believed the priest celebrating the Mass would object. 

Maybe Fr Walsh has objected, and if he has I apologise. But it seems to me that whoever was responsible for planning that liturgy must have thought Mons Brian would not find 'Underneath God's Beautiful Rainbow' objectionable. And that speaks volumes about the worldly, non-Catholic culture prevalent at St Peter's and at the cathedral, and for that the person ultimately responsible is the bishop. +Charles Drennan.

Anon says: Our senior priests have more than fallen for the propaganda, they're promoting it. Another tick indicating the existence of  agenda to change irrevocably the nature and purpose of the Catholic Church.