CARDINAL DEW DEFIES CHRIST'S DEMAND: FEED MY SHEEP

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Cardinal Robert Sarah offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Dear Cardinal Dew

To set the record straight: just over a week ago you informed a Massgoer at St Patrick's, Kilbirnie that your reason for denying the faithful in the Wellington Archdiocese their right to Communion on the tongue was that "the bishops have decided".

If "the bishops have decided" to deny Communion on the tongue, your Eminence, why do they deny it only in your Archdiocese, and not in any other in New Zealand?

And did you mean, your Eminence, that "the bishops have decided" because the Vatican has approved a ban on Communion on the tongue?

If that's the case, your Eminence, you and the bishops would seem to have been gravely misled. In December 2020 the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship did indeed reject a dubia appealing a decision of Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville suspending Communion on the tongue "for the duration of the pandemic", and so upholding the bishop's ruling.

Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, cited a letter sent in August by the congregation’s prefect, Robert Cardinal Sarah, in which the cardinal wrote: “in times of difficulty (e.g. wars, pandemics), Bishops and Episcopal Conferences can give provisional norms which must be obeyed … These measures given by the Bishops and Episcopal Conferences expire when the situation returns to normal.”

For one thing, the situation in New Zealand has never been anything other than 'normal'.  NZ has had 26 deaths from COVID-19. Pretty much like a normal bad flu season. 

And for another thing, here's what Dr Peter Kwasniewski has to say on the matter: 

"The constitution “Pastor Bonus” states that the Prefect of a Congregation speaks in the person of the Congregation. Moreover, Archbishop Roche is not even the Prefect of the CDW, so neither the pope nor the CDW as such has said anything “coram Ecclesia.” (meaning, 'in the face of the Church, and public). 

Dr Peter Kwasniewski

"As a letter sent from the offices of CDW, Secretary Roche’s letter has zero force of law. 

Archbishop Roche’s letter declines to issue a ruling on the matter in question. Instead, it states that a ruling has already been effected by Cardinal Sarah’s circular letter of August 15, 2020.

In other words, it is to Sarah’s declaration ‘coram ecclesia’ that this particular point of law owes its authority."

https://catholiccitizens.org/news/93588/cardinal-sarahs-signature-absent-from-vatican-letter-backing-ban-of-communion-on-tongue-during-covid/

"Everyone understands that emergency situations can arise that may temporarily debar Catholics from the reception of sacraments. However, bishops have a solemn obligation to keep such periods as short as possible. Unquestionably they would be abusing their episcopal authority if they made arbitrary rules  that not only contradicted universal legislation, but also redounded to the disadvantage of some members of the flock, such as those who adhere to the older form of the Roman rite." 

https://onepeterfive.com/bishops-communion-hand-tongue/

What's more, the signature of Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was at the time prefect of the Congregation, did not appear in that letter from the Congregation. It would seem like dirty work was done at the crossroads. 

The signature of the Vatican’s liturgy chief is missing from a controversial letter signed by the secretary of the Vatican body that supervises worship and sacraments in the Church. The letter supports the decision of a U.S. bishop (Stika - ed) to ban reception of Holy Communion on the tongue in his diocese on account of the coronavirus outbreak. 

The letter contradicts a 2009 letter from the same Congregation regarding the same question in the midst of the H1N1 influenza pandemic. At that time, the Vatican under Pope Benedict, wrote that CHURCH LAW on the subject stipulates, “each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue” and that it may not be abrogated.

While the Vatican's letter quoted Cardinal Robert Sarah’s August 15 letter titled “LET US RETURN TO THE EUCHARIST WITH JOY!” as justification for suspending Holy Communion on the tongue, at no point in this document (Sarah's letter - ed) did the cardinal make such a point. He only referred to bishops giving “provisional norms which must be obeyed” without mentioning anything about such norms including rules for the reception of Holy Communion.

“In times of difficulty (e.g. wars, pandemics), Bishops and Episcopal Conferences can give provisional norms which must be obeyed. Obedience safeguards the treasure entrusted to the Church. The measures given by the Bishops and Episcopal Conferences expire when the situation returns to normal,” wrote Sarah in his August letter.

Cardinal Sarah, when asked in a MAY 2020 INTERVIEW during the height of the pandemic about what should be done when Catholics return to churches after the lockdowns and may be told it is “more appropriate” to receive Communion in the hand, replied: “There is already a rule in the Church and this must be respected: the faithful are free to receive Communion in the mouth or hand.

”Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a Thomistic theologian and liturgical scholar, told LifeSiteNews that the Congregation’s letter to Bishop Stika was “most unfortunate.”

“It undermines the universal norms and tradition of the Church, reiterated many times, concerning the most appropriate and reverent manner for receiving the Holy Eucharist,” he said.

Kwasniewski said that the letter establishes a “dangerous open-ended precedent.”

“Since it is clear from all actual scientific evidence that we are not in a grave pandemic like the 1918 Spanish Flu, much less the Bubonic plague, the decision reflects and reinforces the panic-driven response of civil and ecclesiastical authorities,” he said.

“In this way the CDF’s defense of Bishop Stika’s policy establishes a dangerous open-ended precedent that can be easily abused, given how often there are seasonal illnesses that threaten the lives of certain members of the faithful.

Moreover, since many doctors and pastors recognize Communion on the tongue as no less hygienic than communion in the hand (and indeed have argued that communion in the hand presents its own hygienic problems), the decision also betrays a lack of appreciation for the age-old wisdom of the Church as well as a lack of consultation with qualified experts,” he added.

The liturgical scholar noted that the Congregation’s letter only adds to the “worldwide crisis of sacrilege and apostasy” when it comes to Catholic belief.

“Above all, the decision strengthens the worst plague of our time, namely, the utilitarian pragmatism that has made the Mass into a communion service, and communion into a mere token of our belonging, which we feed to ourselves like ordinary food.

No emergency could ever justify compelling the faithful, in many cases against their consciences, to adopt a practice that conflicts with the spirit of humble adoration given to Our Lord in the host, whom the Church entrusts to the hands of ordained ministers. In that sense, this decision contributes to the counter-catechesis of bad liturgy that has created a worldwide crisis of sacrilege and apostasy,” said Kwasniewski.

Kwasniewski’s point about the “counter-catechesis of bad liturgy” is backed by data. Last year, Pew research FOUND that only one-third of Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus.

That's in the States. Given that New Zealand is more pagan than the US - indeed is the most pagan country in the entire world - the number of Catholics here who believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is likely to be even lower than one-third. 

Kwasniewski said the Congregation’s letter to Bishop Stika “far from being the end of this discussion, indicates instead the ill-informed and confusing advice the faithful are receiving from the hierarchy today.”

He cautioned Catholics about the decision, saying that they “cannot be obliged by anyone on earth to violate tradition, law, common sense, conscience, and medical evidence.”

https://catholiccitizens.org/news/93588/cardinal-sarahs-signature-absent-from-vatican-letter-backing-ban-of-communion-on-tongue-during-covid/

Your Eminence, not only do you refuse your flock the right to Commuion on the tongue but now, at the diktat of our totalitarian, socialist Government you have cancelled Masses.

We thank God that your closure of churches in the Wellington Archdiocese, along with Novus Ordo Mass cancellation and locking Our Lord up worldwide, is driving the faithful into the arms of the traditional Church and the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. You are encouraging a great revival of the Mass of the Ages. Good on you, your Eminence, for that. 

But even if God is drawing such great good out of evil, you and the priests who connive at the evil of church closures will not be exonerated. 

Our Lord promised spiritual supremacy to St Peter: "And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven" :(Mt 16:19). And in Jn 21:21 He fulfills that promise, by charging him with the superintendency of all his sheep, without exception; and consequently of his whole flock, that is, of his own church. The superintendency of his sheep is St Peter's, not a Prime Minister's.

And do you dare, your Eminence, to defy Our Lord's thrice-repeated demand of Peter?

 He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: 

Feed my sheep. 

BEFORE IT BECOMES HATE SPEECH, A WORD OR TWO ON ISLAM

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Today Facebook took it upon themselves to delete Friday's post, 'The Nazis and Commies had hate speech laws too'. 

It offended Facebook, you see, and what got Fb algorithms' knickers in a twist was probably the 'Woke Sheep Explained' cartoon lampooning Muslims (and Republicans).

So with Prime Minister Sinister Ardern intent on criminalising such hateful humour, and getting all upset about upsetting Christchurch Muslims with a movie - perhaps because, amazingly, 60,000 'smiling zombies' signed a petition against it, and quite right too - these reports today on Muslim atrocities worldwide need to get out there asap.

Please take note that Jorge Bergoglio, aka Pope Francis, who has press conferences every other day, has plenty to say about 'rigid' (aka faithful) Catholics, but absolutely NOTHING about the slaughter of Catholics and Christians by Muslims.  

Bear in mind too that today, June 29, the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul, is the Day of Christian Martyrs.

Two comments on the Muslim mayhem read as below: 

"In Canada the covid "pandemic" has given the government in all provinces the opportunity to close down churches who chose to obey God rather than Caesar. Those pastors have been arrested and jailed, after the RCMP humiliated and in some cases brutalized them in front of their children. In some cases police helicopters were used to attempt to flush out churches who had gone "underground" by continuing their Sunday worship in the woods.

Sadly a Muslim family out for an evening walk recently, was deliberately mowed down by a young man, killing four of five family members. I am not criticizing the national outrage and vigils held, with even Justin Trudeau in attendance, but rather pointing out the double standard when a Muslim commits a similar crime on ordinary Canadians, as has happened, the Muslim is excused on the grounds of "mental illness".
I wonder if the young man's anger or hatred towards Muslims was fuelled by Trudeau's frequent preferential treatment of them in Canada? We who don't fawn over Islam are now officially regarded as "Islamophobes."

"Across the Middle East, there has been an ethnic cleansing of virtually all the smaller groups which used to make the region such a rich tapestry of cultures.

Afghanistan lost its last remaining Jew recently. There are barely any left outside Israel, as they were expelled - without compensation or right of return - from Arab countries, & those few are old and afraid. The Yezidis were massacred, raped, enslaved, and their culture will not recover, With the exception of the beleaguered Copts, & a small but growing population in Israel, Christians are now in danger of extinction in the region where they've lived for 2000 years, and from which the religion emerged.

The Kurds are repressed and killed in Turkey, their leader and their MPs imprisoned or murdered. The Turks are bombing Kurds in Iraq, and in Syria, crushing them under tanks and letting loose jihadis to rape and massacre. The Women's Village, built by women for women to rest and recover from the traumas of war, has been destroyed. That Sunnia and Shi'a detested each other used to be some protection for minorities, but now, thanks to Qassem Suleimani, Hamas & Hezbollah are allies.

In the UK, the national curriculum has been challenged and modified as a concession to the homophobia of Islam. At Batley Grammar, the 3 Religious Studies teachers are in hiding and the headmaster read a grovelling apology for their offence, dictated by the mob outside the school.

Gay men were murdered in a park for their transgression of Islamic rules. And all the government, the trade unions, and the local authorities ever do is offer constant appeasement. The former MP for Batley, now the West Yorkshire mayor, supported the mob, not the teacher who had to flee because his home address was posted on the Net. The Scottish Justice Minister, Humza Yusaf, recently almost succeeded in making criticism of Islam illegal, even inside private homes. He will try again. For the frogs, the water is coming close to boiling.

Exactly. Just the point made on this blog last night in 'The Jab, the Deaths, the Deals, the Hate Speech, the Cure'  https://juliadufresne.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-jab-deaths-deals-hate-speech-cure.html

Just a friendly warning: this is not an easy read. Not a joy ride. But for us insular, 'smiling zombies', in this year of Our Lord 1984, it's required reading.

 

"The boy eventually met up with his mother, and they went searching for Pastor Thomas. According to the wife, "As we continued doing the search, we found my husband in a pool of blood, beheaded and his tongue removed." His tongue was likely cut out as punishment for "speaking against Islam."

• 

  Bombed out: Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi

  
  Although Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused the cathedral, subsequent pictures and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more.... In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a "victory" mosque.... Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material.

• Muslim men raped a Christian child and molested another. On May 2, Muhammad Awais, "beat, raped, and left for dead" Anum Bibi, an 8-year-old Christian girl, after he caught her trying to retrieve water with her 9-year-old brother. — Pakistan.

• A group of Muslims attacked a Christian family and destroyed their home in an effort to seize their farmstead.  - Bangladesh.

• The Slaughter of Christians

  Uganda: On May 3, hours after Pastor Thomas Chikooma engaged in a public debate about Islam and Christianity, Muslims severed his tongue and beheaded him. 

  Separately, Muslims poisoned and killed a Christian pastor over his land: whether a church or mosque would be built over it. Pastor Oduchu began clearing his parcel of land in preparation of construction. Then, one day, after eating at a hotel owned by a Muslim, "my husband," said his wife Mary, "arrived at home complaining of severe stomach pains, diarrhea and started vomiting. We rushed him to a nearby clinic, and he succumbed to poisoning." After being interrogated by angry residents, the hotel owner confessed that "Muslims had given him poison and instructed him to put it in Pastor Oduchu's food." The pastor is survived by his wife and eight children, ages 2 to 16.

• May 21: Some Muslims shot to death a missionary pastor, Leviticus Makpa, 39, and his three-year-old son, Godsend.

  

  Pastor Leviticus and little Godsend

  
  
  
• May 21: Fulani herdsmen killed two Christian men — both of whom left behind young families. 

• The same day, a young Catholic priest's body was found thrown in the bush. Church member Emmanuel Albert wrote "The Rev. Fr. Alphonsus is gone but will never be forgotten. He died because of his Christian faith, and as he has gone to meet his Maker, may eternal rest be granted to his soul. We pray for other priests and good people in captivity that God will bring them back home." 

  May 19: Fulani herdsmen murdered eight Christians and burned down a church.

  Finally, between January and April of this year alone, 1,470 Christians were hacked to death by Muslim Fulani.

  Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists

  Pakistan: Another Christian nurse was falsely accused of blasphemy.  Her "crime" was to have shared a video. "here was no religious element in it, but a large group of Muslim nurses and paramedical staff, some armed with clubs and sticks stormed into a hospital auditorium that Christian staff members and patients used as a church. They "desecrated Bibles and threatened their Christian colleagues with blasphemy cases if they failed to raze the church and convert to Islam."

  Such false blasphemy charges are part of a systematic plan to "replace them [Christians] with Muslims. This is the third instance this year in Pakistan of Christian nurses being falsely accused of blasphemy. Earlier:

  "Two Roman Catholic nurses complying with a supervisor's orders to remove stickers at a government hospital are in judicial custody while their families have gone into hiding out of fear of Islamist mobs.

  "On Jan. 28, Tabeeta Gill, a nurse at a Karachi hospital and a gospel singer, was slapped, beaten and locked in a room by a violent mob after a Muslim co-worker baselessly accused her of blaspheming Islam. Police initially cleared her of denigrating Muhammad but later succumbed to pressure of an Islamist mob and charged her with insulting Islam's prophet, punishable by death under Section 295-C. Gill has reportedly fled the country to avoid arrest."

  Uganda: After beheading Kanifa Namulondo's husband some years back, some Muslims burned down her and her children's recently reconstructed home on May 2. 

  In a separate incident, a Muslim motorcyclist intentionally targeted and struck a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and was long known for helping other persecuted converts from Islam.

  Attacks on Churches

  USA: Ali Alaheri, a 29-year-old Muslim man, went on an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish crime spree in Brooklyn, NY, until he was finally arrested and charged with hate crimes. During his rampage he knocked down and destroyed a large crucifix that had stood for eleven years outside of St. Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst, and burned the American flag on the premises. Alaheri also deliberately set fire to a yeshiva and synagogue on 36th Street in Brooklyn. 

  Turkey: In the same village where Christians were earlier persecuted, the Marta Shimoni Church in eastern Turkey was desecrated and vandalized on May 11. A year earlier, the elderly parents of a Chaldean priest were kidnapped. The wife was later found dead; the husband remains missing. According to the report,

  "Marta Shimoni is a cave church built into the mountains, and thus cannot be destroyed in the same way as other churches. Video footage ... shows that the destruction was primarily against the Christian items and relics inside the church. Crosses, pictures of Jesus, and rosaries were strewn across the path leading away from the mountain church's entrance."

   

  

  Marta Shimoni

  
  

  Armenia/Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan continued to abuse the Christian heritage of the ancient Armenian territory of Artsakh, which was recently appropriated by its Muslim neighbor. In October 2020, for example, Azerbaijan shelled and damaged Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. 

  Azerbaijan is seeking to alter the cathedral's appearance: "We have seen many times how Azerbaijan actually treats Armenian cultural values, and it is already clear what is hidden under the 'restoration work.' The goal is to eliminate traces of the Armenian presence." 

  In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a "victory" mosque. 

  Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material. During a May 10 interview, Foreign Minister of Artsakh, David Babayan, said,

  "There is evidence showing that the Azerbaijani are demolishing the Hadrut cemetery.... This is another manifestation of cultural genocide and barbarism.

  Indonesia: On May 31, police arrested 11 Islamic militants accused of plotting the bombings of several churches in the Christian-majority Papua province. Among the items confiscated were jihadi literature and bomb-making manuals, chemicals for explosives, and modified air guns capable of firing real bullets.

  General Attacks on Christians

  Pakistan: Muslim men raped a Christian child and molested another. On May 2, Muhammad Awais, "beat, raped, and left for dead" Anum Bibi, an 8-year-old Christian girl, after he caught her trying to retrieve water with her 9-year-old brother. She was later found unconscious in the field and taken to a hospital. 

  Separately in Pakistan,  a Muslim mob  terrorized the eighty Christian families. Eight Christians were seriously injured and 15 Christian households ransacked.

  Bangladesh: A group of Muslims attacked a Christian family and destroyed their home in an effort to seize their farmstead.

  A regional clergyman confirmed that the Christians "have valid property documents," but "those Muslims want to seize their land illegally. It's an injustice."

  Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

   https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17504/persecution-of-christians-may

  

  Ss Peter and Paul by El Greco

  
  St Peter and St Paul, Apostles and Martyrs, please pray for the Church  

• 
  

THE JAB, THE DEATHS, THE DEALS, THE HATE SPEECH, THE CURE

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Illustrating the boiled frog principle

Not wanting to raise your blood pressure dear reader, but in case you hadn't noticed, the heat under us Kiwi frogs in the pot has been turned up.

First, there's the jab, produced with unborn baby body parts that even the Catholic Church insists we all need. The jab which has already resulted in more deaths than there have been total deaths recorded by CDC's VAERS in the  US,  following vaccinations, in the previous 30 years.

A total of 19 deaths has been recorded anecdotally by the Fb group NZ Deaths and Adverse Reactions. So far. For example:

A cautionary tale

There's this 'Covid-19 modelling expert', Prof Shaun Hendy, shown up who reckons "we need new tools" to deal with highly contagious variants - like "widespread mask use and more scanning using the COVID Tracer app." We all remember UK 'modelling expert' Prof Neil Ferguson, do we not? Enuff said.https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/level-3-could-struggle-contain-delta-outbreak-shaun-hendy?fbclid=IwAR0dfu3ns9XaIp5slAFiVePONz48pFPsbC4uMrqB9-LSAXcLfBnyikD342Y

'Modelling expert' Prof Hendy

There's He Puapua's vision of a separate state for Maori. 

Children are being indoctrinated with LGBTQ ideology, even in 'Catholic' schools. 

Hate speech laws are promised.  

Voices for Freedom report that "Medsafe's decided it's a-okay to double-jab Kiwi kids with an experimental injection, en masse. We're still awaiting the Government's rubber stamp, but it feels inevitable that soon, innocent Kiwi kids will be jabbed with something they do not need that has no medium or long-term safety profile.

Super-spreaders my foot. It is vanishingly rare for 12-15-year-olds." 

And here's another little something - a little something which has probably completely escaped your notice. Below is a list of all the crimes the police are no longer required to prosecute. So what do they do about them? They refer them to 'Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels' instead. 'Te Pae Oranga' is a'a way that Police and iwi/Māori partners deal with crime and prevent reoffending.

It’ "holds offenders accountable while also helping them address problems they’re facing. It’s available to people of all ethnicities." Yeah right.

The worst of it all for faithful Catholics is the unconscionable, downright wicked decision to close Wellington's churches and deny them the Bread of Life, the Bread of Angels, the Bread of Heaven. 

So to comfort you somewhat, after all that - and bearing in mind that Voices for Freedom are not about to roll over either -here's the redoubtable Ken Orr of Right to Life:

Hate Speech Laws - We Will Not be Silenced

The Labour government has made a fatal mistake in pushing ahead to criminalise hate speech. We believe the laws being proposed will cost Labour the 2023 election.  except for speech that constitutes libel, and words that directly incite violence or public harm which are already protected by the NZ Bill of Rights, there is no place in our democracy for hate speech laws. New Zealanders will not tolerate laws that give the state power to attack their personal views and liberties. What the government plans for us is nothing less than the thin end of the wedge of totalitarianism.

Right to Life will not be silenced in protesting the violent killing of our precious unborn children in state-funded genocide and neither will we be silenced concerning the violence inflicted on their mothers.

There is no government or law that will deter us from being a voice for the voiceless. We will not be intimidated with threats of fines of $50,000 and three years in prison.

Right to Life calls on the community to rise up and resolutely oppose the government’s proposed “hate speech laws” that threaten our right to free speech guaranteed by the NZ Bill of Rights. The government seeks to silence dissent in the community under the pretence of promoting “social cohesion.”

Right to Life requests that the Minister of Justice Hon. Kris Faafoi inform us if it is his intention to criminalise persons who protest at state-funded killing of unborn children?

Those who do not learn from history must endure the pain of making the same mistake. We should learn from regimes like Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia that suppressed free speech with hate speech laws. Those who criticised the government were interred in concentration camps (see survivor Renee Firestone, pictured above). 

We all have a duty to defend the sanctity of life of every member of our community from conception to natural death.

Right to Life believes that the government itself is responsible for promoting not only hate speech but actually conducts violence in our community by funding and undertaking the murder of countless thousands of our precious unborn children.

• Denying the humanity of the unborn child until it is born.
• Denying its inalienable right to life.
• Providing for a state funded genocide of “unwanted” children.
• Making the killing of unborn children a core health service with unlimited funding and no waiting list.
• Allowing for the killing of more than 13,000 unborn children every year, effectively for any reason up to birth.

If the Minister is really serious about promoting a socially cohesive society he should:-

• Repeal the born-alive law which is a legal fiction.
• legislate for the legal recognition of the unborn child as a human being endowed with a right to life.
• Cease government funding of abortion.  

And as a means to the ends proposed by Ken Orr, and bearing in mind that the worst of all the above, for faithful Catholics, is the unconscionable, downright wicked decision to close Wellington's churches and deny them the Bread of Life, the Bread of Angels, the Bread of Heaven., here's Dr Ralph Capone of One Peter Five, writing of:

The Saints, The Eucharist, and Worthy Reception in a Contentious Era FROM ONE PETER FIVE  June 25, 2021

Dr. Ralph Capone

Dr. Ralph Capone (MD, FACP) is a life long Roman Catholic, and a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Hospice & Palliative Care. He is also certified by the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and taught Catholic Bioethics at St. Vincent College, and medical subjects in the Physician Assistant Program at Seton Hill. He is now retired, and he and his wife live in Pittsburgh, PA, where he spends his time writing. His writing has appeared in Ethika Politika,Ethics & Medics (a publication of the National Catholic Bioethics Center) and also their Bioethics Journals.

"Holy Communion, after the Incarnation, is the greatest gift that Jesus bestowed upon the faithful and His Mystical Body, the Church. If unity with the Beloved is the fullness and perfection of divine love, then humbly receiving Our Lord in Communion with piety and reverence is the ordinary way to the ineffable union (that) He contracts with the soul.(Saint Peter Julian Eymard in How to Get More Out of Holy Communion. 

This sacrament of sanctification is unsurpassable because in this divine action of Holy Communion we have the grace, the model, and the practice of all the virtues.

One Holy Communion, perfect of Itself, would consecrate a saint any communicant who is properly and fully disposed. The sublime truth is that we receive Jesus Himself, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who deigns to veil Himself under the species of bread and wine in order not to frighten us and bids us to come to Him.

In the great Eucharistic hymn of praise, Adoro Te Devote, latens Deitas Saint Thomas Aquinas expresses that not only His divinity is hidden in the Host but also His humanity! He lowers Himself out of His immense love and remains present to us in every sanctuary and tabernacle until the end of time. 

Jesus' great desire is that we communicate with Him, even daily, to receive and to share His perfect love, a love boundless, eternal and for us wretched sinners, redemptive: 

Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear
And manifold disgrace;

And griefs and torments numberless,

And sweat of agony;

even death itself and all for me

Who was Thine enemy.

(Saint Francis Xavier's Hymn of Love)

The Eucharist opens to us, Saint Peter Julian Eymard explains, the riches of the treasures of grace that are stored up in It. Holy Communion is the vital fountain that gives to His sacramental love the overflowing life it desires and provides His majesty the glory of bestowing His gifts.

This over-abundant bestowal of infinite love should impel in us the desire to receive Holy Communion and if not for ourselves then for Christ as long as we are not morally certain or positively conscious of any mortal sin.

Why does the saint urge us to go to Holy Communion for Christ? By our reception of the sacrament, Eymard writes, we console Christ from those who have abandoned Him. Also, we confirm His wisdom in providing us this sacrament of spiritual sustenance.

In Holy Communion Christ greatly desires and wills that we become one with Him. Through this sacramental union, this heavenly medicine and bread of angels heals our woundedness and nourishes our spirit. Therefore with every reverential reception of Holy Communion the glorious purpose of the Holy Eucharist is fulfilled, for if there were no communicants, this fountain would flow in vain, this furnace of love would inflame no hearts, and this King would reign without subjects.

Jesus Christ models for us the perfection of all virtues, especially by His humility and meekness, and indicates the proper disposition we must have for receiving Him in Holy Communion. As we approach the Eucharist, we should humbly acknowledge our sins, repent of them and resolve firmly to amend our lives and in doing so recognize our complete dependence on God.

Growth in the spiritual life begins with the grace of self-knowledge, becoming aware of our lowly and fallen state.

As we sing in Amazing Grace, "who saved a wretch like me". An N O priest who shall remain nameless changed the OHP to read 'child' instead of 'wretch'. He said God doesn't create wretches (which he doesn't; we decide to become wretches of our own free will) and opined that 'Amazing Grace' was actually a woman ... 

The medicine of sacramental grace then flows from the Eucharist as a comforting balm and remedy for repentant souls. In this way the Eucharist is the bread of sinners and not a reward of saints. However, one might state with equal justice that the Eucharist is truly an enrichening reward for those saints who daily die to themselves, allowing the gifts and virtues of Christ's Spirit to increase in them His love, making their hearts like unto His.

Our spiritual pilgrimage is a love story between Christ, the Beloved and the soul. Saint Bernard's great insights into the movements of this profoundly intimate relationship are from his Commentary on the Songs of Songs. Here he explains a framework upon which the path leads the soul to where it is properly inclined to receive this incomparable Eucharistic gift.

 

Before we dare to approach our Beloved to be united with Him and to receive His kiss, we must first go to Him with great humility, kneel at His sacred feet and kiss those the wounds. This humble act of contrition and of filial love is the necessary start.

The ever-generous Bridegroom Who constantly responds to our imperfect love, then reaches out to us by extending His nail-pierced hands, lifts us up that we might kiss those sacred wounds. This second part of the journey is Christ the great High Priest absolving our guilt. 

At last, the bride, the soul filled with great desire, increasingly purified, is prepared to love and to be loved by the Holy One of God, to be unified with Him and sealed by His kiss. The sojourning soul, the spouse and bride of Christ communicates with her Beloved Bridegroom with every worthy reception of Holy Communion.

Understanding the Eucharist as the Church has always taught and as these saints expound, there should be no dilemma nor substantive controversy over who has the right and the privilege to receive Holy Communion. The goal of reception is holiness itself through unity with Christ, the fount of all holiness.

The word €ommunion evokes the notion of unity of persons; another similar word, unanimity, recalls the notion of being of one mind and of one spirit, in this case with Christ. The Catechism calls the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life and the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God.

Where is this found, this communion of the divine life with Christ and the people of God, of which the Eucharist is the sign and the cause? Surely it is in two greatest commandments given us by Jesus “that we are to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus Christ, the Divine Law Giver, through His Church, summed up the moral law in these two commandments for our benefit and sanctification.

Here is where we discover communion or unity with God and His people. Those who claim to be Catholic but whose repeated public assaults on the moral law by their rejection of the sanctity of all human life and the sacramental nature of marriage destroy the unity of the people of God from each another and from God.

Those who persistently repudiate these commandments, the pinnacle of the divine law which forms the foundation of Church's moral doctrine, abandon Christ, His Church and the unity that He desires. Where there is no unity there is no longer the opportunity of communion in the etymological sense of this word, nor is there any possibility or justification for sacramental Holy Communion.

 

President JoeBiden is refused Communion

The Church and especially her bishops have a duty to protect and defend Christ especially in His hidden divinity and humanity of the Blessed Sacrament.  Where He is exposed to sacrilegious ill-treatment and misuse whether through ignorance, willful or from poor catechesis, or through the desire for human praise or even worse through iniquity, the bishops and priests, if they are to be faithful stewards, must act to end this.

It is for the faithful, sinners who struggle to amend their lives, the Divine Person condescends and desires unity. Christ, the Bridegroom, the Lover of souls welcomes them, His spouse, into His embrace on the Cross. It is noteworthy that the human ABO blood type AB is found in the coagulated blood of the Eucharistic miracles. This type is known as known the universal receiver.

Truly, Christ is the Universal Receiver Who sheds His Precious Blood to accept all who humble themselves and follow His precepts. He heals our wounds, purifies our souls, illuminates our hearts, and fills us with His love. But we must empty ourselves and leave behind our sins, our evil inclinations, and our weaknesses.

We are called to sacrifice our ego and even, for some, our very lives for love of Him.  This is what souls must work to accomplish in order to approach the altar rail, -

Alas! Even if there is an altar rail, it's not used - except in traditional churches, in traditional parishes like St Anthony's Whanganui. 

 

- the very edge of heaven, to receive Christ in the Sacrament of Love, He Who is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Indeed, this is the very summit of our faith which anticipates eternal life when God will be all in all (CCC 1326) and we shall be unified by charity, the greatest of the theological virtues with God and the saints in one accord. In, with and through Jesus Christ, Holy Trinity, hear the prayer of your people:

"Behold, I stand before Thee, poor and naked, begging Thy grace, and imploring Thy mercy. Feed Thy hungry suppliant; inflame my coldness with the fire of Thy love: enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Thy presence."

(Devotions for Communion, p. 87, the Roman Missal 1962, Baronius Press.)

 

Dr. Ralph Capone

Dr. Ralph Capone (MD, FACP) is a life long Roman Catholic, and a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Hospice & Palliative Care. He is also certified by the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and taught Catholic Bioethics at St. Vincent College, and medical subjects in the Physician Assistant Program at Seton Hill. He is now retired, and he and his wife live in Pittsburgh, PA, where he spends his time writing. His writing has appeared in Ethika Politika, “Ethics & Medics” (a publication of the National Catholic Bioethics Center) and also their Bioethics Journals.