THE POPE, HIS HERESY - AND 'MY' MONSIGNOR

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Pope Francis was today accused "guilty of the crime of heresy", and New Zealand's Cardinal John Dew listed (between the notorious Cardinals Gottfried Danneels and Kevin Farrell) as a "heretical prelate" by 19 prominent theologians and philosophers, and academics and scholars in other fields, in an open letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church. 

The signatories are appealing for all the bishops of the world "publicly to admonish the heresies that (Pope Francis) has professed". 

They say the bishops have a duty to admonish the Pope to abjure his heresies and repudiate and reverse actions such as the nomination of cardinals like Dew who have supported any of his heresies. 

Not all bishops, not even a majority of bishops, are required to give sufficient weight to such an admonition, only "a substantial and representative part of the faithful bishops of the Church". 

Here's our chance, people, to abominate publicly the abominable talk and actions we've been forced to endure, in the Church universally and in the limp-wristed, 'anything goes' policies of the Church of Nice in New Zild. To support these brave witnesses to the Gospel and to Christ, sign a petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/the-college-of-bishops-of-the-catholic-church-appeal-to-the-bishops-to-investigate-pope-francis-for-heresy-bcce228e-da31-42d5-96cb-d10d398cc6bc

Funnily enough, I'd only just typed the word 'heresy' - as in "God wills a diversity of religions", which is one of Pope Francis' more egregious pronouncements - when this story, singling out this particular heresy for special mention, popped up on my screen this morning.

I have a personal reason to be reminded of it: I was thinking that 'my' Monsignor, the one who gave me the Stations of the Cross as a penance, would be highly gratified.

Shame he doesn't read my blog (I think that's a fair assumption) because I'd like him to know, now that I finally got around to performing his penance (he kindly gave me a month to do it and I only just scraped in before the deadline), how my thighs ache as a result.


I'd downloaded St Alphonsus Liguori's beautiful 'Stations' and although I omitted the optional Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Bes, I did all the prescribed genuflecting and kneeling - and 24 hours later, I wondered why I could barely stagger up the stairs.

Does this mean, I asked myself, that Our Lord thought telling my confessor that in quoting Pope Francis on "a diversity of religions" my parish priest had preached heresy deserved not only the Stations but also the painful consequences?

I wonder: what sort of penance might those prominent theologians, philosophers, academics and scholars who today have publicly accused the Pope of heresy and abjured all the bishops of the Church to do likewise, incur from their confessors?

I'd advise them to find a confessional with a grille and behind it, not 'my' Monsignor.


Oh, and could we please let our bishops know that their priests and lay people are not lap dogs, to be patted on the head and told it's all right, just ignore the wolf that's ravaging the fold of Christ and it will go away?

NOT ALWAYS PRAYING, BUT ALWAYS LOVING

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"When does one get to the point where, believing that God is our omniscient Father, one might expect Him to act with expedition, as our earthly fathers would act were they omnipotent ?" 

In Part II of this conversation with Leo Leitch, who wonders when God will take action on the latter-day, pagan holocaust of the unwanted unborn, Leo continues: 

Thanks, Julia, for opening and developing this discussion. Although you write that Our Lord exhorted us to pray always, as I expect you mean in reference to Luke 21:36, I think that the context of Luke's Gospel illuminates that Jesus was effectively exhorting us to always pray that the tribulations He foretold at the time of His second coming would not befall us. He wasn't exhorting us be continuously praying.  Indeed, the N.I.V. passage of Luke 21:36 reads: Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. But is that an exhortation to pray unceasingly for God to deal with one evil or another ? Or is it more an exhortation to pray unceasingly giving thanks and praise to God, as in the Holy Mass and as in all manner of spontaneous prayers expressed by us all every day? Is it, really, an exhortation to be constantly praying? I say: My Bible of choice is the Douay Rheims, in which Luke 21:36 is rendered as "Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come"  We may take "these things that are to come" to mean the "days of vengeance" referred to in the preceding vs 21:22 ff - which I'd say have now arrived, with a vengeance, one might say! As to Thess 5:16-18, the Douay has " Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In all things give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all." Yesterday was the feast of St Catherine of Siena, who as the Divine Office tells us,  "never ceased praying to God to let peace return to his holy Church". In Divine Intimacy (Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen' OCD's 'Carmelite bedside book') I read just two days ago that: "True prayer … is the breath of the soul that loves its God, the habitual attitude of the heart which tends toward God … for a soul who really loves God, it would be as impossible for it to interrupt prayer as it would be for it to stop breathing. We can thus understand how everyone, even those living in the world, can fulfill the words of the Gospel, "Pray always" (Lk 18:1). The Douay translation of that is: "We ought always to pray, and not to faint." … And will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night?" (ibid 18:7). My take on this is that since Vatican II, and the near-demise of the Traditional Latin Mass with its close association with contemplative prayer, the Church has been lulled into lukewarmness by an appalling lack of prayer. At Mass last Sunday for instance, we were told that "in the Rosary we used to pray 'save us from the flames of hell' ".  It's so long since Father heard that prayer, which he eliminates from 'rosaries' prayed at vigils for the dear departed, that he's forgotten the words ("fires of hell").  The Novus Ordo has put the Church on a starvation diet. Prayer, the breath of the soul, isn't taught in seminaries. Vocal prayer, in devotions of all kinds, has been stifled. The soul of the Church is afflicted by attempted suffocation. Contemplative prayer is the natural flowering of baptismal grace. But we've had it dinned into us that contemplation is something exotic, esoteric. I was steered away from St John of the Cross by a good monk who wanted me to read Francis de Sales instead, because he was more "moderate". So I read him and loved him but Deo gratias, was led to the Carmelites and back to the sublime Doctor, and his "science of love". It's prayer - of all kinds, but especially the Mass and especially the Traditional Latin Mass, which teaches us to love God. And so, back to Leo Leitch's question, "Is ("pray always") really an exhortation to be constantly praying?" No, we can't possibly be 'constantly praying'. We all have jobs to do! But prayer and generosity teach us how to love and although the mind can't be always praying, the heart can be always loving - doing everything 'AMDG': for the greater glory of God. St Thomas Aquinas says the heart can do this by "the desire of charity". St Augustine says: "Prayer is nothing but a desire of the heart; if your desire is continuous, your prayer is continuous. Do you wish never to cease praying? Then never cease desiring." If we all knew how to pray, we would know how to desire God, and so would never cease praying. We would truly be "His elect, who cry to Him day and night."  And would He not then "revenge" the unborn? 'Anonymous' says: I can't believe it, I like this blog post. Spiritual and helpful, unlike previous rants and churchy gossip columns. Keep it up! 'Anonymous' II says: But do you really need to pray in Latin for God to hear it? I think his language of choice was Aramaic? I say: Of course God hears us always, no matter what language we speak.  Leo adds more: We seem to be agreed, Julia, that we are not exhorted to be praying ceaselessly for divine intervention in matters of this world, including our own needs and such abominations as legal abortion. I mentioned earlier, but you overlooked including it, that any demand that we pray unceasingly for divine intervention would imply that we should expect that our prayers will not be answered.  And Leo again: Your mention of St Catherine of Siena, Julia, brings me to ask what you think of her mystical marriage to Jesus, and, particularly, her bizarre invisible wedding ring. I say: I'll get around to this. But not tonight.  Leo adds (May 16 or thereabouts): Back to Catherine of Siena, Julia. I say: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm getting around to it.

A NOT-SO-SILENT BISHOP

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A 'provocative Rad Trad' of  Palmerston North Diocese has taken exception to Bishop Charles Drennan's deafening silence on the subject of priestly sex abuse in the Church. 

The same Rad Trad makes a comparison (and we know that comparisons are always odious, to one party or the other; no prizes for guessing which is which) between Bishop Charles' mute response and that of the redoubtable Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona, in a speech which savaged the 'sexual revolution' in the US, just three days ago. 

Bishop Olmsted also spoke about the clerical sex abuse scandals that have slammed U.S. Catholicism in the  recent past:

"This morning, I also want to say a word to the laity of the Church, who are justly angered at the revelations of so much sin, and failure in leadership, among priests and bishops of our beloved Church. Your concerns are just, and need to be answered with both sacrifice and actions that are wiser than despair. 

"Please pray for us, your shepherds, that we might act with radical trust in the grace of the risen Christ, to bear any burden that comes from offering healing for the victims, honestly naming the evil, clearly defending inconvenient truths of the Gospel and exercising decisive leadership in Christ's name. We bishops owe this to you. 

And more importantly, we owe this to the Lord Himself — nothing less. As one called by Christ to be a shepherd in these times, I also owe you, and the Lord, clarity in my teaching." 

We see here very clearly why the late lamented parish priest of Tararua Parish, Father Bryan Buenger, has decamped to Phoenix, Arizona. Priests and people alike deserve transparency and courage in their bishops in New Zealand also. 

WHAT REALLY SET HOLY WEEK ON FIRE

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On Holy Thursday, at the close of a Mass of the Lord's Supper celebrated with sparsely-populated pews, plastic roses on the Altar of Repose and only nine volunteering for foot-washing, Father suggested that it might be the last time we hold the Triduum in Holy Trinity Parish. In a fairly broad hint, he mentioned Cardinal John Dew's call for the closing of more churches in the Wellington Archdiocese. And as the coup de grace, he told us that his Eminence wants us to stop calling priests 'Father'.

Same day, Holy Thursday, the official spokesperson for the Catholic Church in NZ, Dame Lyndsey Freer, told the media she was "sorry" that rugby star Israel Folau had said homosexuals would go to hell. 

Day before, Wednesday of Holy Week, a guy with gas cans and lighter fluid was stopped by police at the doors of St Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Day before that, Cardinal Timothy Dolan had said to himself, "Oh my Lord, are we safe?" He was thinking of the $177,000 just spent on new fire safety features - because St Patrick's has a wooden roof.

And the day before that, as we all know, with horror and disbelief the whole world watched the wooden spire and roof of Notre Dame, symbol of the Catholic faith in France, "the First Daughter of the Church", collapse under the assault of flames looking like they'd leapt out of hell. (And now we have the assurance of Notre Dame's chief architect that those flames hadn't leapt out of an electrical short circuit, as a new detection system was installed in 2010 and the cathedral completely rewired.)


On Easter Sunday, nearly 300 people were killed in Sri Lanka by Islamic suicide bombers, the deadliest attack being at St Sebastian's Catholic Church, where at least 104 people were killed, possibly in retribution for the massacre in Christchurch NZ.

At Holy Trinity CHB, Holy Week concluded with an Easter Sunday Mass that was all about going to heaven. Father "can't wait to get there". He must have thought the entire congregation was going there too, otherwise rejoicing publicly about how he's going to heaven, in front of people who were going to hell, would surely have been very rude.

Holy Week was bizarre, unprecedented. What are we Catholics in the pews to make of it? 

• In suggesting that after millenia of the usage, lay people should stop calling their priests 'Father', Cardinal John Dew repudiates the title bestowed by God on Abraham, on the Levite whom Micah called father and priest, on Joseph, on Job, Eliakim and Melchizedek.
  Priests who no longer give witness to Christ by dressing like priests should not allow lay people to give witness to Christ either, by calling priests by the title implied by their status: as bridegrooms of Holy Mother Church, they are spiritual fathers of Her children.
  Cardinal John is emulating Uriah Heep in 'umbleness, believing apparently that priests' being addressed as ordinary men will somehow cure 'clericalism' and priestly sexual abuse. 
  
• 25 parishes amalgamated in the Wellington Archdiocese in four years and his Eminence says more churches are to be closed.
  Catholic churches are closing because Catholic souls who hungered for the truth as taught by Jesus Christ have died of starvation. Catholics have walked away from their church in disgust at the music and the liturgy: two years ago for instance, Cardinal John announced that, in defiance of the GIRM, lay persons would read the Gospel at Mass and lead the congregation in Lectio Divina.  Does this man have a death wish? Why does he want to emasculate the Catholic priesthood?
  An apostate of my close acquaintance says he's desperate. "Oh no," I said, his Eminence claims that he's "not worried".
  
  
• Cardinal Timothy Dolan was "honoured" to sponsor an exhibition at the NY Met Museum which profaned sacred symbolism such as rosary beads. Cardinal Tim has refused to excommunicate the  'Catholic' NY mayor who signed off abortions at any old time up till birth.

• Israel Folau's disregard for public opinion and his witness to Jesus Christ should be applauded by the Catholic Church as an exemplar for priests and lay people alike. The spokesperson for the Catholic Church had no reason to be 'sorry' except that Folau fails to make the critical distinction between people with homosexual inclinations and those who perform the homosexual act (from which even the devil withdraws in disgust). However, that's probably because billboards and tweets don't lend themselves to subtlety and anyway, the distinction seems to have escaped Dame Lyndsey.
  
  
• In tweeting/bleating on the Sri Lankan massacre, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other luminaries of the left have notably eschewed the term 'Christians' in referring to the slain, preferring to call them 'Easter worshippers'. Easter, or 'Eostre' being the Anglo-Saxon word for an ancient Indo-European goddess, Obama, Clinton et al are labelling Christians as worshippers of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn.
  How do you feel about that, people? The liberal left are not just playing semantics, they are attempting to obliterate the fact that Christians are the most persecuted religious group of our day.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, a prelate so outspoken that he's just incurred a CB (confined to barracks) penalty from Pope Francis, commenting on the conflagration at Notre Dame, puts his holy finger on the common denominator of the events of this Holy Week: 

If the Shepherds of the Church refuse to do penance for the spiritual conflagration of the past fifty years, and for the betrayal of Christ’s universal command to evangelize, should we then not fear that God might send another and more shocking sign, like a devastating conflagration or earthquake that would destroy St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome? God will not indefinitely and shamelessly be mocked by so many Shepherds of the Church of our own day, through their betrayal of the Faith, their sycophantic serving of the world and their neo-pagan worship of temporal and earthly realities. To them as well are addressed these words of Christ, ‘I tell you, unless you repent you will all likewise perish.’” (Lk 13:5)

'Anonymous' says:

I once entertained the thought of starting a blog - but reading yours has well and truly put that wanton egoistic aspiration to bed. Would I rant so heedlessly at the moon though? Defending Israel? Really? If he could quote scripture to damn all Catholics to hell he would not have hesitated one moment. I think your dominant defect is despair - a person with even a glimmer of hope in their soul would see all the present woes in the context of eternity. Work likes everything depends on you and pray like everything depends upon God - and it does. 'Anonymous II' says: Unfortunately our leaders are taking their lead from failed dioceses overseas - ones that implemented the lay pastoral leader (or similar) programmes called collaborative ministries euphemistically. All the research I could find shows that where these programmes have been developed seminary enrolments have plummeted. But then again the cynical among us might have a suspicion that that was the motive in the first place. A desperate need for priests adds fuel to the burning passion for equality of the sexes in ministry, does it not?  "Anonymous' III says: I am concerned by the weak response of Freer to the Israel Folau situation.  We must assume she is speaking for the NZ Bishops.  If this is their response, it is not appropriate.  Further, Folau is not the issue.  He is only quoting the Bible.  The Bible and the Christian faith are the real targets. It appears the power to pick Folau off comes through the sponsors of Rugby Australia.  It will be a master stroke of gender power politics if they can destroy Folau’s livelihood as a rugby player.  This will help validate in the minds of the public that quoting the Bible is socially unacceptable. The Bible will be a banned book soon. It has been a Holy Week to remember.