ANTHROPOCENTRISM IN CHICAGO, NEW YORK AND PN; OUR LADY AT FATIMA

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The Vicar-General of the Palmerston North Diocese, Monsignor Brian Walsh, sounds like he's cross. And he has reason to be.

Mons Walsh stated today that neither he nor Monsignor David Bell "have never in the past nor intended in the future to administer Sacraments over the phone". 

That statement will doubtless come as a relief to parishioners of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, who were phoned by 'Catechist' Kate Bell two days ago and told that priests were doing anointing of the dying over the phone. A 'lay nurse' with the dying parishioner could do the anointing with the oil, she said. 

Bell added that Reconciliation could take place over the phone too. She said she would be ringing everyone in the parish to let them know.

This raises serious questions. On whose authority did Ms Bell make these phone calls? If it were not an initiative of either Monsignor Walsh or Monsignor Bell, that leaves only Parish Priest Fr Joe Grayland - who has a history of initiatives which could be described as surprising, at best. Heterodox of even heretical, at worst.

If administering the Sacraments by phone, contrary to precedent, canon law and the Magisterium, was Fr Grayland's idea, not Ms Bell's, to admit that would be the gentlemanly thing to do. To apologise and make amends would be the Christ-like thing to do.

However, in Fr Grayland's defence it should be said that PN Cathedral's lay staff also have a track record of behaviours and statements that are not in accord with Church dogma and doctrine. 

They're in good  - or at least, powerful - company. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, recently voted "the worst cardinal in the US", today seemed determined to live up to his reputation, seemingly dismissing the power of prayer to combat the coronavirus.

"Religion is not magic," he said, "where we just say prayers and think things are going to change.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-cardinal-dismisses-prayer-power-during-pandemic-we-cant-just-pray-and-think-things-will-change

Pardon me? When we are powerless in ourselves to combat evil, that is exactly what we should do: people of faith do "say prayers and think things are going to change". And why? 

Because Jesus Christ Himself has told us, " Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Lk 11:9). It's called faith, not 'magic'.

We are not surprised either to hear Cardinal Cupich say he considers it best “to stay in our home and allow this plague to pass us by.” It's what priests all over the world, for the first time in the 2000-year history of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, are doing. 

This morning a liberal Catholic told me about the parish priest in Plimmerton, whose presbytery is on the road to the local cemetery, how the hearse and cortège stop outside for him to bless the dear departed on the way past. Whether Father actually leaves the presbytery or performs the blessing from behind a closed window (like the teddy bears that are displayed, I suppose to cheer up the poor kids being trotted round the block by their Mum), the lib Catholic didn't say. 

But he did say that "it's nice." (Obviously, this chap is a paid-up member of the Church of Nice.) 

But why could Father not have joined the cortège and given the blessing at the graveside, with everyone 'social distancing'? Easy-peasy, given the size of funerals in these days of The Lockdown. Although Jacindarella and sidekick Dr Bloomfield are going to let us have funerals again in 'Level Three' - when we get there, that is. Don't hold your breath. 

In apparently thumbing their noses at Church doctrine, the PN Cathedral staff are in powerful lay company too. This week New York Governor 'Catholic' Andrew Cuomo - the guy who had New York lit up in pink to celebrate killing babies up to birth - said that NY's drop in coronavirus cases had nothing to do with prayer or faith. 

"The number is down," said Cuomo, in a breathtaking display of hubris, "because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that ... That's how it works. It's math."

That's not 'math', it's galloping anthropocentrism.  "A turning of man toward himself, a focus on self" as Bishop Athanasius Schneider describes anthropocentrism in his must-read Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age. 

It's anthropocentrism that thinks you can ignore Church doctrine and say "we are administering the Sacraments over the phone now" because in The Lockdown, that's easier. It's anthropocentrism that drives a Prince of the Church to say it's best "to stay in our home and let this plague pass us by". Probably not a few of us could think of ruder words for that than 'anthropocentrism'. It's anthropocentrism which denies that God had anything to do with the drop in Covid-19 in New York. 

Anthropocentrism, says Bishop Schneider, is "the primary disease" of the Church. "This is reflected very visibly in the manner of celebrating Mass facing the people (versus populum) introduced after the Council and still unfortunately the norm.  ... 

"Reform should consist, at the outset, of turning once again toward the Lord. ... The first end of Holy Mass is adoration of God, not communal togetherness. ... We cannot avoid being conformed to a man-centred way of thinking if the liturgy is celebrated with the priest and people turned toward each other, while Jesus remains veiled and hidden in the Holy Eucharist" - actually behind the priest, in the tabernacle (if the tabernacle's in its rightful place, that is). 

And it's anthropocentrism which authors a 'Bishops' Easter Day Pastoral Letter' that burbles thusly: 

"Our hope and prayer is that when we leave the tomb of lockdown, we will work together as a community to build a better Church and society. Our hope is that we will all be stronger in our relationships with one another and in our appreciation of the gift of life. Our hope is for a society that is not driven by profiteering but works for the common good as we together rebuild our nation’s economy. Our hope is that we will be a society that is more aware of the tangible presence of God who journeys with us on the paths of life. Our hope for the Church is that we will be more ardent in our faith, hope, love and service."

https://www.catholic.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Bishops-Pastoral-Letter-Easter-2020.pdf

What does 'a better Church' mean? What does 'stronger in our relationships' mean? Does 'tangible presence of God' allude - surely by accident, not intentionally - to the fact that receiving Our Lord by Communion in the hand, we literally touch the God who made Heaven and earth with our grubby fingers - "something which, symbolically, the Church Fathers would find horrific," says +Schneider? Or do the good bishops simply not know the meaning of the word 'tangible'? (Of course you don't need to be told it means 'able to be touched'.)

Where in this 'Pastoral' letter is there any sense of the urgency, in these days of The Lockdown when so many go in fear for their worldly lives, but only the very old with any good reason, of the  of the primary purpose of the Church, of saving souls? 

The bishops are living in La La Land: that is, a secular, materialistic land with a secular, materialistic mindset.  

They'd do well to assist at the daily Low Mass streamed from St Anthony's Priory Whanganui and listen to the sermons of either Fr Francois Laisney or Fr Michael Johnson SSPX on alternating days. 

Two days ago Fr Johnson gave a fascinating history lesson based on the 153 fish caught in Peter's net, relating that to the symbolic significance of numbers in Scripture. Those 153 fish that didn't break the net, he said, can be taken as a prophecy of the Rosary which will catch up and draw into Heaven all of the Blessed Mother's elect.

He took us by way of St Jerome and St Augustine to St Dominic, and the 15-decade Rosary presented to him by Our Lady, which has 153 Hail Marys. 

I don't quite know how, and don't quote my 'math' which has is notoriously bad, but we arrived at Fatima on May (the month of Mary) 13 1917, when Our Lady first appeared to the three shepherd children. He carried on through her consecutive appearances on the thirteenth of each month until October (the month of the Rosary) - 153 days. And there are, said Fr Johnson, 153 words in the Rosary.

Our Lord spoke to Sr Lucia, one of the seers of Fatima in August 1931. Our Lord was dissatisfied with the popes since 1917 for not consecrating Russia to Our Lady as she had requested. He warned that as a consequence the popes could follow France into bad times. 

I looked that one up: "In the wake of Pope Pius XI's indecision to fulfill the requests of Heaven, and his diplomatic policy of "Opening to the East," Our Lord made known to Sister Lucia the following in August 1931 in Rianjo: "Make it known to My ministers, that given they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My request,  they will follow him into misfortune. Like the King of France, they will repent and will do as I have requested, but it will be very late: Russia will already have spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions against the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer!" 

"On June 17 1689," continued Fr Johnson, "the Sacred Heart had appeared to St Margaret Mary Alocoque, asking her to pass on to the King of France the consequences of having delayed for 100 years the consecration of  France to His Sacred Heart.

"On June 17 1789 Louis XVI was stripped of all his kingly authority by the Revolution. On Bastille Day, four years later, the Catholic King of France was butchered by the guillotine, having brought upon France, the "oldest - and now the ugliest - Daughter of the Church", said Fr Johnson, the "ghastly philosophy" of Liberte, Equalite et Fraternite. Those ideas spread consequently into Russia, resulting in the Bolshevik Revolution, just 2 weeks after the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima.

"The errors of Communism spread from there to China and to Eastern Europe in the Soviet bloc.

"The same three principles of Liberte, Equalite, Fraternite metastatised into the disastrous principles of Vatican II, which began in October 1962 and was prophesied in the as yet unreleased portion of the Third Secret of Fatima.

"The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary has still not been performed. Popes and bishops will suffer the fate of the King of France if they don't fulfill the request of Our Lady at Fatima. This worldwide lockdown may be the beginning of that fulfilment.

"On June 26 2000 the first part of the Third Secret was revealed."

"And we saw in an immense light that is God: something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it a Bishop dressed in White we had the impression that it was the Holy Father. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions."

"This," said Fr Johnson, "should serve as a warning. If bishops refuse to make the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary they will follow King Louis XVI of France into similar misfortune.

"There is no excuse for not praying 5 Mysteries of the Rosary daily. We should do 15 Mysteries to fulfill Our Lady's request to the children of Fatima. Without it how can we defend ourselves against the Devil?"

All this in a sermon at a Low Mass on a weekday. What Fr Johnson might not do with a Bishops' Pastoral Letter!

"The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying." 
                                                                                              – Saint Pope Leo XIII.